Lagos taskforce arrests two impostor

Operatives of the Lagos State Taskforce on Friday, arrested two impersonators of the agency who arrest and extort unsuspecting motorists.

This was disclosed in a statement by the agency’s Director, Press & Public Affairs, Gbadeyan Abdulraheem which was made available to WesternPost.

The duo, Salisu Sikiru, 43 and Julius Ehizenaga, 53, a dismissed Police man, were arrested at Anthony Village while they tried to arrest and tow the vehicle of a motorist.

They were however prevented from doing so when the motorist quickly called the officers from the Lagos State Taskforce who confirmed they were impostors before arresting them.

Speaking on the incident, Chairman of the Agency, Shola Jejeloye disclosed that he has been on the trail of the duo for a while due to the numerous reports he received from members of the public about a certain “Taskforce” team that arrests motorists and starts negotiating financial settlements in exchange of the release of their vehicle.

“I receive a lot of calls and complaints online from people saying that men from the Taskforce attempted to tow their vehicle if they don’t settle them. That is not how we operate here. Not everyone dressed up in black, green and tactical jacket is from the Taskforce. Some are from other security agencies and units, or impostors like these two,” Jejeloye said.

One of the arrested fraudsters, Ehizenaga said they always target commercial vehicles.

“I used to be a Policeman but I got dismissed in 2006 for absconding from duty before going into this practice years later. We target Danfo mostly, and on a good day we impound five vehicles and claim to charge them with insecure loading. Once in a while we arrest private motorists too,” he said.

The second suspect, Sikiru claimed that his role was to block their prey with his towing vehicle in order to create fear and panic in the hearts of the victim.

“I operate towing vehicle services. My job therefore is to bring in the towing vehicle once it’s time to apprehend any victim. On the day we were caught, I noticed my colleagues ran away after I had blocked the vehicle with the towing truck, I was confused. Before I knew what was happening, I was already in the custody of men of the state Taskforce,” he said.