The fake officer
A dismissed sergeant, who has been jailed twice for impersonation, may be on his way back to prison after he was arrested a third time for the same crime, a report by NewTelegraph has revealed.
The man identified as Femi John, 52 revealed why he has refused to give up impersonation.
He said: “I want the police to take me back. What I did six years ago that led to my dismissal was just a hasty way of getting money to meet some needs. “I have gone to jail twice for impersonating police and extorting people.
I still love police job; I want police to take me back. There’s nothing else I can do for a living, except policing.”
John, who was arrested by the Oyo State Police Command, confessed to have been dismissed in 2012 for diversion of a 33,000-litre fuel tanker in Oyo State.
The state Commissioner of Police, Mr. Abiodun Odude, presented John with 48 other suspects for different crimes and offences. He said: “The suspect was recently arrested by the Iseyin Police Station for parading himself as a serving police officer and fraudulently extorting money from unsuspecting victims.”
Rather than be worried about his present predicament and the likelihood of going back to prison, John, right at the parade ground, was begging and lobbying the state Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), Adekunle Ajisebutu,to facilitate his return into the police. John beseeched Odude: “My CP, I want you to facilitate my return to the police because there is nothing else I can do. I love the job. I know you can do it.”
“How can the police take you back when you have messed up the organisation? What did you do in the first place that led to your dismissal? If that was a mistake, why did you sew another uniform for yourself and started extorting people, presenting yourself as a serving police?” the CP asked. According to the suspect, he sewed police uniform and presented himself as a policeman because he had to eat and feed his family.
“What else can I do to make a living? This is the only job I know and love,” he added. Although the commissioner and PPRO repeatedly told John that he couldn’t be reabsorbed into the police, he insisted that he should be taken to Abuja, so that the process of taking him back would start. Speaking with journalists, John said: “I was once a police sergeant. It was condition that forced me into impersonating.
It was the problem I had while I was in service that led to my dismissal. I was dismissed because I diverted a truck loaded with 33,000 litres to somewhere in Fiditi to sell. After I sold it, I was arrested, tried and dismissed.
“I have been parading myself as a police officer simply because I needed to look for something to eat and feed my family. I have been arrested twice, and I was charged to court.
I served just four months for my first offence, and six months for my second time in Agodi Prison. I will like to return to the police if I get the chance because policing is a job, which I love so much.
I cannot rob and I have to survive.” Asked why he sewed a police uniform and gave himself a rank of an Inspector, John replied: “I promoted myself to an Inspector of Police after I discovered that I was not promoted by the police authority. My colleagues, who were sergeant in 2012, were promoted to the rank of Inspectors. So, I also gave myself the rank of an Inspector.”
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