Two suspected criminals that posed as police officers from Force Investigation Bureau, FIB, and Special Tactical Squad, STS, at the Force Headquarters, Abuja have been arrested by the police in Lagos for breaking into and destroying the home of two young men, brutalized them, seized $5000 from their house and used POS, to withdraw about N1.350m from their account.
The victims, Fatai Showumi Shina, 20, a spare parts dealer and Samuel Toyosi, 25, said the suspects who claimed to be Police officers form the Force Headquarters on Investigation invaded their home at No. 15, Oseyintola Street, Ifako-Ijaiye in Agege, Lagos around 11.30pm on July 15th, 2022 with seven heavily armed men dressed in jackets inscribed with the letter FIB-STS,they beat and kicked them claiming that they came to investigate them for kidnapping.
The victims said that after turning their apartment upside down without discovering any incriminating document, the officers reportedly whisked the occupants into separate waiting vehicles having seized their phones and went along with them in their car.
While speaking on his they were tortured, the victims said “On the road, they said they were taking us to Area B Command, Apapa for further interrogation before being flown to Abuja the next day. First, they took us to the front of Red House Police Station, Iju where we were mercilessly tortured. They left again to the front of Meiran Police Station where the beating continued until we were forced to disclose our account details. Having discovered N1.7m in Fatai’s account, the officers told him to give them his ATM pin with which they withdrew N1, 350, 000 .00 using different POS machines.”
The victims after been released said they wrote a petition and Lagos Police Public Relations Officer, Benjamin Hundeyin was called. He immediately swung into action and informed the DPO in Iju who drafted policemen to their hideout where the two suspects were arrested. Two of them including the gang leader who happened to be a serving Police officer were arrested while four others are still on the run and modernized weapons were reportedly recovered from them.
Police sources said the second suspect is a dismissed policeman and are gang of notorious robbers that have been operating in different parts of Lagos and beyond for long and have been on Police searchlight.
