The operatives of the Lagos State Task Force has arrested a fake estate agent defrauding innocent members of the public with fake Lagos State government letter headed documents of different types.
Chairman of the task force Mr. Olayinka Egbeyemi, a superintendent of police (SP), disclosed this while parading the suspect, Mr. Sunday Obayemi, 45, in Lagos, at the weekend.
He said the suspect was apprehended based on a complaint from an acclaimed tenant (names withheld) of 34, Olumo Street, Papa Ashafa, Agege, Lagos.
SP Egbeyemi said further that the complainant reported to his office that he was served a quit notice on Lagos State Task Force letterhead.
The chairman stated that after the agency carefully investigated the document on which the quit notice was served, it was discovered to be on a fake Lagos State Task Force letter headed document.
He stated further that a thorough search was later carried out on the residence of the suspect at 48, Shita Street, Dopemu, Agege where the agency recovered packs of different neatly printed fake Lagos State Government documents.
The suspect Mr. Sunday Obayemi, who is from Ado-Ekiti, Ekiti State, confessed after his arrest by the task force that he retired as a civil servant with the Lagos State Ministry of the Environment in year 2014 and then admitted to have been defrauding innocent members of the public through estate agent business and other environmental issues using fake Lagos State government letter headed documents.
Obayemi admitted further that he had been issuing and serving quit notices, removal order and other government notices on innocent members of the public and extorting money from them.
He said the last one he did was a quit notice he issued and served on the complainant who complained to the task force and who lives at No 34, Olumo Street, Papa Ashafa, Agege, Lagos after he collected N50,000 from the landlady of same address with a fake Lagos Task Force letter headed document.
His words, “I have made a lot of fortunes using fake documents of the Lagos State Government Ministries, Departments and Agencies in defrauding innocent members of the public,” he said.
He however appealed and promised not to engage in such illegal business if pardoned by the Lagos State Government.
In the meantime, the Lagos State Commissioner of Police, Mr. Fatai Owoseni, had directed that the suspect be transferred to State Criminal Investigation Department (SCID) for further investigation, SP Egbeyemi said, even as he seized the occasion to remind members of the public being victimised or harassed by landlords to take their matters to Lagos State Citizens Mediation Centre in the Lagos State Ministry of Justice, “where matters between landlord and tenants, mutual disputes, employer and employee among others are being mediated.”
