A middle aged man Babalola Saka Bolaji, was on Friday paraded by the Oyo State Police Command for alleged unlawful possession of police kits, with which he allegedly robbed unsuspecting members of the public and extort money from motorists.
He was one of the 23 suspects paraded by the state Commissioner of Police, Mr. Abiodun Odude, at Eleyele, Ibadan on various offences ranging from armed robbery, kidnapping, Internet fraud, stealing, impersonation and so on. Items said to have been recovered from the suspects included five arms, four vehicles, one motorcycle, 11 sewing machines, laptops, phones, police kits and cash sum of money.
According to Odude, Bolaji was arrested on July 1, 2017 at a trailer park in Akinyele, Ibadan, through the help of a member of local vigilance group in the area, saying: “Upon interrogation, the suspect confessed to have stolen the kits from a yet-to-be identified police officer in Lagos. It is suspected that before his arrest, the suspect had been using the police kits/uniform to rob unsuspecting innocent victims.”
The police boss, who said the suspects would be arraigned in court after conclusion of investigation, revealed that exhibits recovered from Bolaji included one police camouflage golf/faze cap with mobile police badge, a black T-shirt with police logo, one black belt and two receipt booklets.
In an interview with journalists, Bolaji, who said he was born in Ibadan and raised in Saki on Oke-Ogun axis of Oyo State, stated that he moved to Lagos some years ago to take up a job in a security company in Ikeja, Lagos.
He explained that he worked as a security guard and a gate keeper in the company, adding that the company also offers laundry services to some policemen on their uniforms, saying: “I also helped the company in washing the police kits. On many occasions, I would put on the police uniform and I would look at myself in the mirror to see my look. Some of the informs fits me to the extent that I loved the police job. Then, a thought came to my mind that I could make money with the uniforms.
“I would take a police uniform, operated with it and carefully return it to the store so that the company and our clients would not know about the deal I was into.”
Bolaji said he would take a befitting police uniform and go to Berger area of Lagos and negotiated with either private car owners or commercial bus operators that he could provide security for them to wherever they were going. He noted that he used to make a lot of money from the practice.
At times, he said he would stand by the roadside and extort money from motorists, adding that he usually operated at Ojota and Berger in Lagos, as well as Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, and many parts of Ibadan, including Ojoo and Akinyele, before he was apprehended.
The police also nabbed a five-man armed robbery gang that unleashed a reign of terror on Ogbomoso axis of the state on June 17, 2017 at about 10p.m, during which they attacked two car owners and dispossessed them of the cars, and thereafter robbed a fuel station. But in a gun duel with the police after a distressed call from the public, one of the armed robbery suspects was short dead.
