We Act As LASTMA Officials To Extort Money On Highways – Suspects

CYRIACUS IZUEKWE

Two suspected fake LASTMA Officials who were arrested may have exposed what some LASTMA Officers used to do on Lagos roads under the false pretence of controlling traffic in the state.

The suspects confessed that they acted as LASTMA Officers in order to extort money from motorists on the highways in Lagos having reportedly learnt from the original officials.

P.M.EXPRESS reports that the suspects, Godwin Odiwo,48 and Michael Shokunbi, 28, were apprehended along Ikorodu Road in Ketu area of Lagos while wearing LASTMA uniforms and extorting money from motorists under the false pretence of controlling traffic in the area.

They were said to have been busy negotiating for money, causing more traffic congestion on the road before the police detectives, who were on patrol suspected them. The detectives interrogated them, discovered that they were not real LASTMA Officials and took them to the police station for investigation.
It was at the police station that they opened up and confessed that they were not LASTMA Officials but were only impersonating them to meet their needs.
The police found them culpable and charged them before the Ogba Magistrates Court for impersonating to defraud the public.
They pleaded not guilty. The prosecutor, Supol Peter Nwaogwugwu, asked the Court for a date for the hearing of the matter to enable the police prove that they actually committed the alleged offence.
Thus, the Presiding Magistrate, Mrs. Y.O. Aje-Afunwa, granted them bail in the sum of N200,000 with two sureties in like sum.
They were remanded in prison custody pending when they will perfect their bail conditions. The matter was adjourned till 9th July, 2019.