Operatives of Zone 2 Police Command, Onikan, Lagos, have arrested Rikaya Musa, who for years has allegedly been parading herself as a Customs officer. She was nabbed by the operative with a customs identity card and a customs clearing agent ID card.
On her arrest, the command’s spokesperson, SP Hauwa Idris Adamu, stated that the operatives acted on a petition by one Josiah Kashim Utenwojo and one Dominic Okoh Henry to the Assistant Inspector General of Police Zone 2 Command Onikan Lagos against Rakiya Musa. “Rakiya claimed to be an officer of the Nigerian Customs Service in charge of the Public Auction Unit at Tin Can Port, Apapa Lagos. Rakiya lived in the Nigeria Air Force Mess in Apapa for three months, thereby making her victims believe she was a customs officer.
“Upon receipt of the petition, the AIG, Ari Mohammed Ali, immediately detailed some crack detectives attached to the Zonal Criminal Investigation Department to investigate, who immediately swung into action.
“After a detailed investigation, it was revealed that the victims were introduced to Rakiya by one Akinwande Kayode (a retired Naval officer), who suggested that she help them procure auction vehicles from the Nigerian Customs Service.
“Based on the foregoing, the sum of three million two hundred thousand naira (3,200,000) was transferred to Rakiya’s UBA personal account. Immediately after the fund was received, she became incommunicado, and it dawned on them that they had been swindled. All efforts made to reach her proved abortive.
“However, after a painstaking investigation, she was arrested in Abuja, where her customs ID card and customs clearing agent ID were recovered, and she was brought to Lagos for proper investigation,” SP Hauwa stated.
In the course of the investigation, she allegedly confessed to the police that she had been impersonating a customs officer in order to defraud unsuspecting members of the public and that she had been in the business for over 15 years.
She also claimed to have given the sum of one million naira (1,000,000) to her boyfriend, Akinwande Kayode, from the three million two hundred thousand naira (3,200,000) fraudulently obtained from the victims.
