Oseni Afeez, a real estate agent resident in Lagos, has accused Wahab Yahaya, a police officer attached to the Commissioner of Police’s Strike Team, Lagos State Police Command, of duping him out of N20,000.

Oseni told FIJ that Yahaya had requested for the money to help search for his stolen phone.

“My phone was stolen on April 14. I had lots of documents on that phone, which I didn’t want to lose, and I tried to look for who could help me track the person that stole it,” said Oseni.

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“I later got the contact of the police officer and he told me he would be able to track my phone. He just told me to send him the pack of the phone with the IMEI number, which I did.

“Later on, he got back to me that if I wanted him to help me track the phone, I would have to pay N25,000. But I told him I didn’t have such amount and could only afford N20,000.

“I subsequently transferred the N20,000 to him on June 1. I didn’t even have enough money then; I had to borrow it from my friend because of how important and urgent it was.”

Oseni narrated how Yahaya started giving him different reasons the phone had not been tracked and the money could not be refunded.

“A week after I transferred the money, I stopped hearing from him. Since then, anytime I called him, he would give me excuses that didn’t add up. At a point, he stopped answering my calls,” said Oseni.

“Even the friend that introduced him to me kept on calling him on my behalf but there was no reply. I was so surprised a police officer could run away with N20,000.”

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When FIJ called Yahaya, he denied at first, saying he was not the police officer in question. Later, he admitted that he indeed got money from Oseni and others for the search of their phones.

“Yes, I got the money from him, but it’s not my fault. What really happened was that the guy said his phone was missing about two months ago and came in to report it,” Yahaya said.

“You know we police have to send the IMEI number to the DSS so they would send us the result of the tracking. But till now, they said the work is not active and we have paid those people.

“To refund our money now is another thing. I even repaid someone else N30,000 the day before. But as of now, I don’t have money.”