A Yaba Magistrates’ Court in Lagos has sentenced a 47-year-old man, identified as Augustine Opone, to seven years imprisonment for impersonating a Superintendent of Police (SP) at Federal SARS Force.
The Chief Magistrate, Peter Ojo, sentenced Opone to three years imprisonment on counts one to three, and seven years imprisonment on count five, with no option of fine, NAN reports.
The prosecutor, ASP Roman Unuigbe, earlier told the court that Opone had been using a fake police identification card to collect money from unsuspecting people.
He said, ‘’The convict impersonated a police officer and collected money from suspects with the promise of helping them to have charges against them dismissed.’’
Unuigbe stated that the convict had appeared before several courts in Lagos to discontinue charges against accused persons.
“On Dec. 3, at Ifako Ijaiye area of Lagos, he obstructed Insp. George Okpe and his team from carry out investigations.
“This led to his discovery to be a fake police officer and subsequent arrest,’’ he said.
The prosecutor said the offences contravened Sections 168 (d), 330 (d), 365 (1), 380 (1) and 411 of the Criminal Laws of Lagos State, 2015.’’
Ojo, however, gave the convict N15,000 option of fine or two years imprisonment on count four.
He ruled that the sentence would run concurrently, starting from Nov. 27 which was the date of his arrest.
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