Task force arrests 2 fake security personnel over ‘okada’ operation on restricted routes

Operatives of the Lagos State Taskforce on Environmental and Special Offences (Enforcement) Unit yesterday arrested two men  –  Monday Job and Rasak Oloyede  –  at Oshodi allegedly for wearing military and police uniforms, separately, to engage in ‘okada’ (commercial motorcycle) operation on restricted routes. Job was caught allegedly wearing the uniform of a policeman, while […]

Operatives of the Lagos State Taskforce on Environmental and Special Offences (Enforcement) Unit yesterday arrested two men  –  Monday Job and Rasak Oloyede  –  at Oshodi allegedly for wearing military and police uniforms, separately, to engage in ‘okada’ (commercial motorcycle) operation on restricted routes.

Job was caught allegedly wearing the uniform of a policeman, while Oloyede was nabbed fully kitted in a Nigerian Army camouflage as they sat astride their motorcycles soliciting for passengers.

The Chairman of the agency, Olayinka Egbeyemi, confirming the arrest, told journalists that the two suspects confessed they indulged in impersonation to evade arrest while flouting the traffic law restricting ‘okada’ operation on certain routes.

In his statement, Job, who hails from Akwa-Ibom State, confessed that he bought the uniform for N700 from a police officer who was deployed from Lagos to the northern part of the country.

He further confessed that he had been using the uniform to extort money from both motorists and motorcyclists plying restricted routes along the Lagos-Abeokuta expressway.

“I was hawking before I joined the ‘okada’ business over a year ago and I have been wearing this police uniform to arrest and defraud

‘okada’ riders, making, at least, between N30,000 and N35,000 daily,” he added.

Oloyede, who impersonated a sergeant in the Nigerian Army, said he had been using the uniform he got from a dismissed Army officer to escape check points on roads.