Two Ex-Lagos Staff Arrested For Extorting Money From School Proprietors

Two former staff of the Lagos State Government have been arrested by the police in Lagos, South West Nigeria for allegedly using the name of the government to extort money from unsuspecting school proprietors.

The suspects, 33 years old Mr. Sahid Sikiru and 38 years old Mrs. Monsura Awosanya, a widow were ex-staff of the state Ministry of the Environment and were arrested at Ayobo, Ipaja area of the state as they attempted to extort money from the proprietor of Divine Nursery and Primary School under the pretence that they were still staff of the state government.

The two suspects were brought to the Ministry of the Environment on Thursday where they confessed to the act of obtaining from schools under the guise that they worked for the state government. They were still in possession of government’s identity card.

Spokesperson of Divine Nursery and Primary School, Pastor Paul Akitoye told P.M.NEWS that the suspects came to the school last week, saying that they were staff of the Ministry of the Environment and that the school needed to fence its wall, landscape the environment as well as create drainage channel and plant flowers.

Akitoye told the suspects that what they demanded from the school was not possible since the pupils were very few and only pay between N3,000 and N4,000 as school fees and that many of them were still owing the fees.

“I even removed my shoe and pleaded with them, but they refused. After discussing with them, they insisted that they will close down the school until we comply with the order they gave us.

“The woman among them said we should give them money in order not to close down the school and since we don’t have money, they shut down the school last Wednesday. Thank God the following day was our mid-term break,” he explained.

Akitoye said he reported the matter at the Ministry of the Environment where he was told to set up the suspects, which he did successfully.

According to him, he told them to come to the school to collect N1,000 but the suspects pegged the amount at N15,000 and he agreed to pay.

On the said day, one of the suspects, Sikiru showed up to collect the money. It was there he was arrested and his identity card was seized and handed over to the police while his second in crime was later arrested.

When asked whether he actually carried out the act, Sikiru, a former project staff of the Environment Ministry confessed to the act, saying that he and his colleague had so far obtained money from eight schools he under the pretence that they were still staff of the state government.

“I was a project staff under the sanitation department and I contracted disease in 2007 while packing refuse. I needed money to take care of my leg; that is why I entered the business,” he said.

He said they never collected money from the schools but that they normally bring up bogus charges on the school in order to frighten the proprietors to bribe them so that their schools would not be shut.

Awosanya said “I am guilty of the offence. I don’t know what to say. I only got into the business in March.”

The two suspects have been detained at the office of the Lagos State Taskforce on Environment and Offences where they would be charged to court.

—Kazeem Ugbodaga