25th January, 2012
Afake official of Independent Corrupt Practices and Related Offences Commission, ICPC, has been arrested by the police for being in possession of a stolen vehicle.
The suspect, 34, was arrested at Igbore in Abeokuta, Ogun State, southwest Nigeria, on his way to Aba allegedly to deliver the car to a buyer.
According to the complainant, Mrs. Mary Ojo Osagie, the suspect in company of others at large approached her sometime in December 2011 and said their brother who is a lawmaker was interested in buying the Toyota Starlet car she put up for sale. She said she negotiated with them and they agreed to buy the car for N550,000.
She said the suspect and others now at large requested for her bank account number and she gave them her three bank account numbers in Fidelity, Diamond and First Banks.
Mrs. Osagie said that on 4 January, this year the said lawmaker sent one of those who had earlier met her to collect the car after she might have received an alert about the payment from any of the three banks. But throughout that day, there was no alert and the man left.
She further told P.M.NEWS that the following day (5 January,) the lawmaker sent another man who arrived her place at exactly 12 p.m and waited till 4.15 p.m when she got an alert from First Bank that the lawmaker has paid the sum of N710,000 into her account, N10,000 of which, according to the man, was for her being patient while N150,000 was a deposit for another vehicle which he intended to buy from her. She then issued a receipt and handed over the car to the man who then took the car away.
P.M.NEWS learnt that when Mrs. Osagie went to collect her money from the bank the following day, she was told that no one paid a kobo into her account and that the alert she received was fake.
Luck however ran out on the suspect when Mrs. Osagie’s son-in-law who was travelling to Benin City sighted the car and closely followed it until they were approaching a police check point. He then overtook the car and alerted the police who promptly arrested its driver.
During interrogation, the suspect allegedly told the police that he is an official of the ICPC in Agege, Lagos, a claim that was found to be false.
When P.M.NEWS visited Ojokoro Police Station where the suspect is detained, the DPO CSP Raji Murtala, refused to comment on the issue and referred the reported to the state Police Public Relations Officer.