FIVE fake officials of a local government in Lagos State who allegedly extorted N41,000 from a professor have been arrested by the police in the state.
The suspects, who were arrested by operatives of the Rapid Response Squad (RRS), accused the university lecturer of ‘under-speeding on the expressway.’
The fake officials usually operated along the LASU-Igando Road, claiming to have been contracted by the Ikotun-Igando Local Council Development Area (LCDA) under Alimosho Local Government Area.
The suspects had last Thursday arrested the professor for slowly travelling on the expressway, before extorting N41,000 from him.
The professor, according to investigations, was heading towards Igando from LASU when the suspects operating on Keke NAPEP, forced him to park for not speeding.
The don was forced to drive to the suspect’s hideout on the expressway, where his vehicle was impounded.
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The vehicle was later released the following day after the N41,000 fine was paid.
At the time of the don’s arrest, over 15 private vehicles and two commercial buses had been impounded by the miscreants and their tyres deflated.
Some of the victims who the gang arrested described their activities as illegal.
One victim who declined to mention his name stated that the suspects demanded N30,000 from him for his vehicle not to be towed to Badagry, where he would pay N75,000 as fine into the coffers of the local government.
Investigations revealed that many private car owners paid cash and through a POS allegedly owned by one of the suspects.
One of the suspects, a dismissed spy policeman, confessed that there are three teams operating for Ikotun-Igando LCDA, adding that they were engaged to work for the council area on contract.
He noted that the team remitted N20,000 weekly to the council.
Recovered from the suspects were payment tickets, ranging from N25,000 to N41,000, issued to their victims and their operational tricycle.
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