Two persons were yesterday paraded by the Lagos State Police Command for forgery of document, impersonation, unlawful possession of hard drugs and fake foreign currency.
Parading the suspects, spokesperson of the command, Ngozi Braide said the first suspect, Mr. Victor Kekong, was arrested during a stop-and-search operation organised by the men of Area G Command, Ogba, Ikeja on February 5.
“During the operation, Kekong was caught with some raps of India hemp. On further search, the policemen saw some documents where he posed as Inspector General of Police.
“Victor Kekong forged the documents to defraud a certain foreigner. The content of some of the documents contained contracts, oil transactions, financial transactions, Central Bank cheque for USD250,000, collected from one of his clients.
“One of the letters revealed that he had already collected USD10,000 and he was still working on getting more before he was arrested.
“When men of the command went to his house, they also found incriminating evidence.
“Among the documents found in his possession were the Inspector General of Police letter headed paper with forged write up, with the name and signature of the Inspector General of Police; a copy of Federal High Court of Justice Certificate of Legality; Central Bank cheque, identity card of Federal Civil Service Commission, Abuja; Ministry of Tourism contract award certificate; United Nations Terrorist Inspection Board; Anti Drug Money Laundering Clearance Certificate; and Internal Revenue Service tax clearance certificate,” Braide said.
The second suspect, 55-year-old Raymond Babs Fasheki, according to the police spokesperson, was arrested following a tip-off by a patriotic Nigerian.
“Last week, we received information from a good citizen that there was a man in Alade market who specialises in printing fake dollars. So the men of state squad swung into action and arrested him and found in his possession about 1500 fake United States dollars which is equivalent to N2.5 million.
“We also found some Cefa which he printed. So during interrogation, he claimed he bought them from somebody on the Island.
“So far, we have concluded investigation and both suspects will be charged accordingly to serve as deterrent to others.”
Speaking on his arrest, Victor Kekong, 34, said to be a fish farmer from Cross River State said “I was arrested on February 5, 2014, during a stop-and-search operation and they found a rap of Indian hemp in the cloth that I was wearing.
“I used to smoke but as part of my new year resolution, I stopped, but I didn’t know that the cloth I wore still had some raps from the leftover of 2013.
“After I was arrested, the policemen took my phone and found several e-mails I had sent to a man I had met on the internet, with whom I have been communicating since last year.
“He wanted me to help him verify some documents and that at the end of the transaction he was going to pay me N200,000.
“These documents were printed from my e-mail, which contains the correspondence of both of us. These documents are the ones he sent to me. We met on facebook, via an account which I operated with a fake identity of Philip Agwe. I started that late last year.
“I used the fake identity because that was the only way I could talk with him. I got the fake international passport from Google. I was not very confident that it will work out, it was just a trial.”
The second suspect, Raymond Babs Fasheki, a graphic designer, was nabbed with 151 USD100 notes which is approximately N2.5 million.
According to him, he bought the fake dollars from his friend, Alahaji Bello, at Kokori in Balogun market, on Lagos Island.
