Police in Ogun State have arrested a 35-year-old dismissed policewoman, Funmilayo Balogun, and 13 others for criminal offences ranging from stealing, armed robbery, murder and rape. The state Commissioner of Police, Ikemefuna Okoye, paraded the suspects at the office of the Special Anti- Robbery Squad (SARS), Magbon, Abeokuta. Okoye also disclosed that eight vehicles were recovered from some of the suspected armed robbers, who had been terrorising people.
According to him, the arrested policewoman was dismissed in 2010 from the Ondo State Police Command over fake result.
He said that Balogun was a corporal before her dismissal but had been going about deceiving unsuspecting Nigerians with the rank of an Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP). Okoye explained that the fake policewoman, who is currently pregnant, came to Abeokuta about two months ago and stole a Honda Crosstour worth N5 million from a car dealer. She later sold the car for N3.5 million but collected N2 million as first instalment. The commissioner said that the dismissed policewoman was eventually arrested in Lagos while the stolen car was recovered in Port-Harcourt, Rivers State.
He said: “This woman specialised in stealing vehicles. She is specialised in deceiving people, going to car dealers to deceive them that she wants to buy a car. She will bargain with them, after which she will now tell them that they should follow her to the bank to cash money. From there, she will discharge the dealer and take away the vehicle. “I don’t know how she came about the police uniform and that is what she has been using to defraud people. In this particular case, she came into Abeokuta, she negotiated with a car dealer and then pretended to be coming to the state police headquarters, Eleweran. They believed her and gave her two boys to follow her.
“She came into the headquarters, drove round, deceived them and went out, came back and dropped one of the boys and asked the other one to follow her to the bank to collect the money. While their master was inside the office waiting for them, he could not see them and he had to call them; they said that they were still waiting for the woman. “Their boss now sent another boy to the so-called bank. The boy went there and was at the bank waiting for this woman.
Then, the dealer called the woman again and asked about her whereabouts. She said she was in the bank. While they were waiting, the next time he called, the woman said she was still processing the money.”
Okoye said the fake policewoman subsequently switched off her phone and headed for Ibadan, the Oyo State capital, from where she escaped with the car. “When the dealers reported the matter, we investigated and the investigation landed us in Port-Harcourt where we recovered that vehicle after arresting the woman in Lagos,” the commissioner added. Speaking with our correspondent, Balogun claimed this was the first time she stole after her dismissal.
She said she regretted her action and appealed to the government to pardon her because of her children. Balogun, who stated that she already had twins, advised authorities of the police to desist from dismissing erring officers. She noted that frequent dismissal of officers could escalate crime rate in the country.
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