Police in Lagos says five suspects have been arrested in connection with forgery of fake COVID-19 certificates generated in an Ikeja-based cyber cafe.
Briefing newsmen on Thursday, Commissioner of Police in charge of Airports Command, Bature Umar disclosed that the incident occurred on February 19, 2021 when London-bound passenger, Michael Osagbogun was allegedly swindled of N50,000 meant for COVID-19 test.
Parading the suspects at the Muritala Muhammed International Airport, Umar stated that the gang specialised in selling a computer-generated COVID-19 certificates to unsuspecting travellers within the international wing of the Lagos airport.
The paraded suspects were Achibong Idonrenyin, Moses Samuel, Popoola Adewala, Wale Aderele and Abdulmalik Ibrahim.
The police told journalists that two members of the syndicates, Shehu Imam and Adeola Dalington who both work with Sky Blue Services at the airport are are still at large.
Explaining how they were arrested, the commissioner said that one of the suspects had approached Osagbogun promising to help secure a COVID-19 positive certificate for him.
“Two of the suspects, Popoola Adewale and Adeola Dalington, who knew the airport environment well due to the nature of their jobs at the airport, took the victim to one of the toilet facilities at the airport where the sum of N50,000 was obtained from him under the pretext of producing a valid COVID-19 positive certificate for the victim,” he said.
Umar further explained that the victim was taken to a commercial internet hub, DAT Cybercafe located at No. 4, Oriyomi Street, Ikeja, where a fake certificate was procured for him.
Unfortunately, the victim who was on his way to the United Kingdom was intercepted and denied a boarding pass by the officials of the British Airways after they discovered the sham certificate he presented at the counters.
“The victim immediately raised the alarm, which led to the arrest of four suspects and a guarantor to one of the two suspects at large,” he said.
Continuing, the police commissioner explained that a combined team of detectives from the State Criminal Investigation Department and Aviation Security, a department in the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria laid an ambush for the suspects.
On interrogation, the suspects confessed to the crime but claimed that it was their first time of engaging in the criminal transaction.
“Upon interrogation, the suspects confessed to the crime and the sum of N50,000, which they obtained from the victim was recovered from them, while the computer used for the crime has been impounded and will be used as exhibit in the court of law.
“The passenger, as far as we are concerned, is a victim. He was the one that reported the case to us after he was denied boarding by the officials of the airline. The suspects have provided information that will aid our investigation and they would be arraigned in a court of competent jurisdiction on Friday,” he said.
