Two arrested for impersonating Commissioner of Police, DSP

Two fake police officers, who have been parading themselves as the Delta State Police Commis­sioner and a Deputy Superintendent of Police, (DSP), respectively, are now in police net after they were rounded up by the Special Anti-Robbery Squad of the Anambra State Police Command.

The impersonators are Israel Chukwukeme who has been going around with the insignia of a commissioner of police and Ada Eze, a female, who claimed to be a DSP, and according to the police, they have been duping people with their fake ranks.

The fake officers were alleged to have duped several victims, promising to get them auctioned cars and other luxury goods, before nemesis caught up with them and they were rounded up at Nnewi, Anambra State, by police operatives.

The Anambra State Commissioner of Police, Mr. Karma Hassan, who con­firmed the arrest, said that one of the suspects, Ada Eze, has used her fake police identity card to dupe over 30 peo­ple at Nnewi. Some of her victims include Gabriel Azegba who paid her N265,000 for an auctioned car and number plate while one Chukwuadu Eze lost N35,000, promising the victims that they would get the cars in October but later told them that the Commissioner of Police in charge of the auction had traveled to Abuja.

"When Eze came under too much pressure from her victims, she would, in the pres­ence of her victims, call Israel Chukwuke­me who often posed as CP in charge of Delta Police Command, who in turn would assure the victims that the auctioned cars would soon be released to them."

It was further gathered that it was one of the victims, Onyebuchi Omeke, who suspected the voice of Israel Chukwuke­me as a member of his church choir.

This made the suspects to report the case at the Special Anti-Robbery Squad office of the command, where the officer in charge, James Nwafor, ordered operatives to work on the syndicate.

Detectives there­after invited Israel for church ministration. The following day, the suspect showed up in the church and was arrested and it was his confession that led to the arrest of Eze.

In her confessional statement, Ada-Eze said:

"It is true that I have been falsely parading my­self as a DSP. I also collected money from people, promising them that I would get them auctioned cars and goods. My hus­band, Aloysius Eze, was a police inspector who worked in the Delta State Police Command.

He was shot by armed robbers when they were taking suspects to court. The other gang mem­bers laid ambushed for them and shot my husband to death in 2002 with other police officers.

I didn’t see my husband’s corpse because the armed robbers carried away my husband’s body till date. I have seven children for my husband and since he died in 2002, no help has come from the police or his family.

It was suffering that prompted me to turn myself to a fake police officer."

Also narrating his involvement in the crime, Chuk­wukeme said:

I went to Madam Eze’s shop to drink and she called me that I should pose as CP Delta Police Command and should tell some people on phone that their auctioned cars and goods will soon get to them.

I am a choir member in my church and it was when the victim sus­pected my voice, they called me to come and play for them in the church and I went there.

When my father heard that I have been arrested, he died on the spot on November 6, the very day I was arrested."