A man identified as Akogun Rasheed Usman, has been arrested for allegedly posing as an officer of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, (EFCC) in Kwara state.
Operatives attached to the EFCC Ilorin Zonal Command apprehended him after he had been serially defrauding victims.
According to the commission, Usman demands money from those under invstigation on the pretext that he could help them procure a soft landing regarding their cases with the anti-graft agency.
However, the bubble burst for the scammer when the Ilorin Command of the Commission received intelligence regarding his criminal activities.
EFCC said Usman, who hails from Babanla in Ifelodun Local Government Area of Kwara State, claimed to be one of its agents and obtained N500,000 from one Mrs Khadizah Abdullahi, a parent of two of the suspects detained by the commission over internet fraud offences.
After his arrest on Thursday, March 27, 2024, at the General Hospital, Taiwo-Oke area, Ilorin, he also claimed to be a staff of the Library Department of the Kwara State College of Education, Oro.
His victim, Mrs. Abdullahi, said she became agitated when the suspect failed to have her two sons, held in custody by EFCC, released on bail to her as promised.
The EFCC said in a statement: “Firstly, she said Akogun and her went through the same security screening while at EFCC office, a situation that made her wonder why it should be so if truly he was an officer of the Commission as he claimed!
She also noticed that while in EFCC office to perfect the phoney bail, the self-styled EFCC staff neither received nor gave salutes or compliments to fellow officers, as compliments are a tradition in all security and law enforcement agencies.”
She added that rather than have her sons released to her, the suspects took her to a location outside the office to receive the said N500,000 and also demanded more money to perfect the bail.
It was in the process of collecting an additional N200,000 that the long arm of the law caught up with him. The anti-corruption agency said it will be arraign the suspect in court upon the conclusion of the ongoing investigations.
