Evelyn Usman
22 November 2008
The Zone two Police Command, Onikan Lagos comprising Lagos and Ogun States last week recorded a feat in its renewed fight against criminality in both states.
The proximity of the states to, not only the country's borders, but air and sea ports makes it attractive to individuals with inordinate ambition to get rich quick.
These criminals have constantly devised new dimensions in their devilish act of perpetrating heinous crimes and this puts the police on their toes all the time. While operatives of the command will be busy checking the activities of trans-border banditry, the criminals would be focusing attention in producing fake drivers licences.
However, luck ran against one of the syndicates that specialize in producing fake drivers licence recently when two of their members were arrested by a surveillance team from the zone.
During a search at the suspect's residence, a total of 53 fake drivers licences bearing names of applicants from different parts of the country, some Hp scan jets 3800,compact laptops, computer key boards and central processing units and printers were recovered.
Surprisingly, the suspects confessed to have successfully carried out the deed with the connivance of a senior official of the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC). In fact, he claimed he actually produced them for the senior officer who in turn issue such to unsuspecting drivers.
In this interview with Crime Guard, one of the suspects who identified himself as Ogbebor Kelvin from Edo state admitted committing the crime saying, "I produce the licences from printing machines. I must state the truth here because I have been arrested. I produce them for one Commander Sanni in FRSC. I produce each for him at the rate of N800. I met him in a friend's child dedication two years ago and when I introduced myself as a Computer Analyst, he told me he would be needing my attention. All I did was to get an original copy of a driver's licence and started producing same kind for him.
"Unfortunately, he is not here at the moment and I do not know where he lives. During the period we were meeting, he never took me to his house for once. We usually met at Mr Biggs or the Federal Secretariat, where he gives me names of applicants. He told me since he was a Road safety official, a Commander for that matter, that nothing would happen to me should I be arrested. I only saw him in his uniform twice but at other times, he came on mufti".
Asked who taught him the job, he said, "I learnt the job from my master who is now abroad. If I am allowed to go free, I will not venture into any shoddy business again in life"
His alleged partner in crime, 24 year old Taofik Hassan, from Osun state claimed to be a trained computer Engineer. He said," I was never into any shoddy business until the Commander came with the proposal. I was tempted because of the money involved for he was always bringing it. The Commander's office is in Osun state"
Explaining how they were arrested, the Zonal Public Relations Officer,Woman Assistant Superintendent of Police, Linda Ekebe said ," They were arrested following a complaint received by the AIG in-charge of the zone, Mr. Mohammed Abubakar that some senior FRSC officials in collaboration with some civilians in Ijoko and Idimu areas of Ogun state were producing and distributing fake national drivers Licence. Our operatives from the zonal intelligence unit embarked on surveillance where the duo were arrested "
Read comments. Write your own.
Copyright © 2008 Vanguard. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.
kudos to the police