Posted by By DIPO KEHINDE on
Thirty-eight persons, who specialised in forging anything under the sun, were yesterday paraded in Lagos by Acting Inspector General of Police, Mr. Sunday Ehindero.
Thirty-eight persons, who specialised in forging anything under the sun, were yesterday paraded in Lagos by Acting Inspector General of Police, Mr. Sunday Ehindero.
The suspects were arrested during a raid of the notorious Oluwole area of Lagos, by a combined force of four security agencies.
Stunned by the range of recovered forged documents, including 4,000 Nigerian passports, 50,000 assorted foreign cheques, 10,000 blank British Airways tickets and 10,000 United States Postal Money Order, the police boss said Nigeria would have been better off, if the skill, creativity and imagination exhibited by some of the young suspects had been channeled to other lawful endeavour.
On display were forged bank statement of accounts, several stamps and seals, various International passports, forged blank marriage certificates, death certificates, certificates of Incorporation of Companies, forged certificates of occupancies, International driver's licences, Postal Orders, foreign bank cheques, fake United States dollars, Printing plates for various foreign bank cheques, forged university degrees and NYSC certificates.
Also recovered were 1,500 foreign passports of countries such as Chad, Libya, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea Bissau, Congo, Cameroun, Senegal, Switzerland, Gambia, South Africa, United States, Jamaica, Costa Rica and Ghana.
Ehindero also mentioned the seizure of 500 computers, Customs documents, seals and stamps, photocopiers, binding machines and wraps of weeds suspected to be Indian hemp.
Pointing out that Oluwole area of central Lagos has, over the years, been notorious as criminal black spot where all forms of stolen and forged documents are openly traded, Ehindero, who addressed reporters and police officers at the officers mess, Onikan, said: 'The last few years had witnessed the detriment of our national image, a high preponderance of forged documents emanating from Oluwole being used in complex advance fee fraud, scams, fake cheque scams, immigration scams etc in several foreign countries particularly in Europe, North America and Asia."
Explaining how and why the evil colony was raided, Ehindero said President Olusegun Obasanjo, who was concerned about the security threat posed by Oluwole, directed that a committee, comprising the Police, FCT Minister, State Security Services, the Immigration and the EFCC should embark on a clean up exercise of the area and other similar locations in Lagos where counterfeiting and forgery were prevalent.
He said: 'Working as a group, the committee, headed by me, met at Abuja and fashioned out a holistic strategy guided by intelligence gathered over the years about the operation in Oluwole. The committee identified the crimes being perpetrated, identified other areas in Lagos that complement, support and replicate these illegal activities to include: Somolu, Apapa, City Hall and Bristol Hotel.
'Working on a road map given by the committee, a sub-committee, made up of operational officers of the various committee, successfully punctured the syndicate and obtained various forged documents. This covert exercise, culminated in the arrest of four suspects on Sunday 28 and early Monday, August 29.
'The men arrested made startling revelations on the structure, exact locations, modus operandi and the inner workings of the criminal gang at Oluwole. The subsequent cordon, arrest, search and raid in the afternoon of August 29 at Oluwole was the climax of the operation.
'Four units of Police Mobile personnel participated in the massive exercise supported by operatives of SSS, EFCC and Immigration. In the course of the exercise, 115 suspects were arrested in Oluwole area, 77 of whom were questioned and immediately released in view of glaring lack of sufficient evidence to warrant their detention."
As he warned members of the public to desist from assisting the syndicate at Oluwole by designing, printing and supplying materials to the criminals, the police chief noted that patrons of forged documents are as culpable as their manufacturers and vendors 'because uttering forged documents is a serious felony that carries punishment of 14 years jail."
The Oluwole raid followed an exclusive report in the Daily Sun on two men who forged the president's call card and were caught trying to use it to secure jobs at Chevron.