Fake LASTMA Officials Arrested For Duping Motorist Of N35K

It is the end of the road for two fraudsters who have been impersonating the officials of the Lagos State Traffic Management Authority, LASTMA, to defraud erring motorists, as they have been arrested by the police. The two suspects, Funsho Williams and Adekogbe Olabode, were arrested after the collecting the sum of N35,000 from a motorist under a false pretence.

The victim, a 62-year-old retiree of the Federal Aviation Authority of Nigeria, FAAN, Mr Felix Adesanya, was sold a dummy of a spurious allegation of flouting traffic laws and told that for him to avoid being taken to the now famous 'Alausa' head office of the agency, he had to part with the money.

According to Adesanya, while he was driving to the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital, LUTH, in his Toyota Camry with registration number KRD 653 BX, he was flagged down by two men in mufti but wearing reflective jackets on their clothes at Akilo area of Ogba.

I halted with the thought that the two men were in need of assistance to move farther. But I was surprised the duo accused me of disobeying traffic personnel and all explanations to prove that I did not commit any traffic offence fell on deaf ears as they were bent in arresting me.

The duo insisted that I committed a traffic offence and forcibly entered my car and introduced themselves as LASTMA officials and flashed an ID card with the inscription of Lagos Traffic Task Force. They later demanded for my wallet, ransacked it and took N30,000 with a threat to take me to their office if I failed to cooperate and summed up the money to N60,000.

In order to meet up with his appointment, Adesanya went on his knees begging his captives for mercy and was advised to take them to the nearest Automated Teller Machine (ATM) or face the risk of forfeiting his vehicle and paying N120,000 to government.

Left with no choice, the retiree followed to an ATM machine where he withdrew N5,000 and gave to the fraudsters who were still not satisfied and wanted to know the balance in the man's account.

With N35,000 in hand, the fake traffic officials tried to make good their escape and flagged down a commercial motorcyclist but the old man shouted out for help.

As pandemonium broke out, and with people running after them, one of the suspects jumped on the tail of a moving commercial bus, and it was while this was going on that a LASTMA patrol vehicle approached the scene and stopped the bus from moving away. The scammers were then arrested after it was found out that they were fake LASTMA officials.

It took the concerted efforts of the Police and the LASTMA team to stop the mob from lynching them as they were whisked to the Area ‘F’ police station in Ikeja for further investigations.