Date: 2017-01-21

A baker, Kabiru Oladipupo, an Osun State indigene, who claimed to hail from Osun State has revealed how he and an accomplice, Hassan Olayiwola, invited 17 job seekers in a job recruitment scam for the Federal Special Anti-Robbery Squad.

In the fake recruitment, Oladipupo duped his "candidates" to the tune of N391,550.

The suspect claimed that Olayiwola, who is currently at large, was the mastermind of the scambut absconded when their activities were discovered.

He said, "I was invited by him (Olayiwola). He told mehe wanted to give me a job. He said I would be offered a job with SARS.

"He told me to look for 17 people also who have O' Level qualifications and collect N10,000 from each of them.

All the 17 people paid N10,000 each. But when I called to inform him about the money paid,his number was no longer going through."

While parading the suspect and others in Ilorin, the Kwara State capital on Thursday, the Kwara State Commissioner of Police, Mr. Olusola Amore, stated that on January 8, Azeez Ibrahim and 17 others reported at G Division, Oloje, Ilorin that in September 2016,Oladipupo of Gaa-Saka area of Ilorin presented himself to them as a Federal SARS officer.

According to Ibrahim, Oladipupo claimed to be in charge of the recruitment for the squad and collected amounts ranging from N10,000 to N30,000 from candidates like him, totalling N391,550.

The police said that on interrogation, Oladipupo confessed to the crime and that they used Madi Primary School, Ogundele in Ilorin as their training ground.

Recovered from the suspect were passport photographs and credentials of the victims.

The CP said the suspect would soon be charged to court.

Meanwhile, a 29-year-old man, Oluwafemi Bolaji, who claimed to be a student of the Nassarawa State Polytechnic has been arrested for car snatching.

According to him, he dabbled into the crime in order to pay his school fees.

He said he was a newly admitted student of the Department of Agriculture at the polytechnic. "I am just unlucky to have been caught on my first attempt," he said.

According to Amore, at about 9pm on Monday, SARS operatives on patrol at Eruku area of the state intercepted the suspect while he was driving a Toyota Cruiser jeep which was stolen.

The suspect later confessed that he stole the car from where it was parked at Jabi, Abuja.

The CP said the suspect would be charged to court once the investigation into his activities was concluded.

He said that since his assumption of duties in 2016, the command had busted and prosecuted six kidnap cases, prosecuted 42 armed robbery cases and investigated eight cult related cases.

He added that the command prosecuted 36 suspected cultists while it also dealt with eight rape cases and 10 homicides in the same year.

"Twenty-three different categories of firearms and a large number of ammunition were recovered last year while 12 stolen vehicles and 10 motorcycles were also recovered within the same period," Amore said.