The Osun State Command of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) has detained a 25-year-old man, Ayanrinde Abdulgafar, who had been impersonating a lawyer and defrauding the public.
The state Commandant, Agboola Sunday, parading the suspect at the Command’s headquarters in Oke Ayepe, Osogbo, on Saturday, May 27, 2023, claimed that Ayarinde had allegedly defrauded POS agents inside court buildings in various states while always dressing in official attire.
According to Adigun the Federal High Court, Akure, and the State High Courts in Osogbo and Ilorin were the locations where the suspect allegedly committed the crime.
He said that the suspect was detained on May 25, 2023, in Ilorin, Kwara State, by the Command crack team working with the Kwara State NSCDC command.
“The suspect presented himself as a Barrister of law to one driver on the 23rd May, 2023 whose service he requested to drive him first to State High Court Osogbo before heading to Federal High Court, Akure.
The suspect in his full regalia entered the court, exchange pleasantries with lawyers and thereafter approached a POS woman around the court premises and collected the sum of One hundred and fifty thousand naira with the aim to do the transfer.
He had collected the phone of the driver to share his internet facility to help him transfer the money. He entered the court premises and disappeared into the thin air, only to be tracked to Ilorin, Kwara State.
The suspected fake lawyer defrauded another driver who took him to Ilorin to the sum of N100,000, after which he was arrested,” the commander added.
Speaking with newsmen, the suspect claimed he is a University of Ibadan Law Faculty dropout.
Ayanrinde said he started duping people early this year, adding that he had collected over N200,000 from his victims.
When asked what led him to the act, Ayanrinde said he did it to get back at his father who abandoned him since childhood.
“I dropped out of the University of Ibadan (UI) from the law department in 2022 when I could no longer pay school fees.
I decided to start practising as a fake lawyer to swindle people in courts because my father who is a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) decided to neglect myself and my mother after he impregnated her.
I do this crime to spite him. I regret my action, my father is the one that destroys my life. He denied me as his son and never took responsibility for me,” he said.
