N2million fake currency in circulation in Abuja-Police

The FCT Police Command has placed residents and visitors of Abuja, the nation’s capital over the circulation of N2million fake notes by a gang of hoodlums.

The Deputy Commissioner of Police in charge of Administration, FCT Police Command (DCP), Rabiu Ladodo disclosed this on Thursday while parading a suspect identified as Idowu Gafar who was said to be in possession of N10,000 fake currency.

Also paraded were 23 other suspects for their alleged involvement in car snatching, armed robbery, phone snatching and other crimes.

According to Ladodo the recovered currencies have been sent to Central Bank of Nigeria for confirmation of its genuineness.

He also said the suspects confessed that N2million fake notes was brought into Abuja.

The DCP said: “On 18 September, 2018 at about 1000hrs, acting on tip-off Police operatives arrested one Idowu Gafar ‘m’ 29 years at Lugbe for being in possession of fake currencies, and was trying to use same to do point of sale (POS) transfer.

“He was however exposed when the POS operator raised an alarm after she realised that the said currencies were fake.

“Upon his arrest, fourteen pieces of fake one thousand naira notes were recovered him as exhibits.

“Similarly, on 10th September, 2018 police operatives acting on tip-off arrested one Abubakar Adamu at Gwarinpa for being in possession of thirty-seven (37) pieces of fake one thousand naira notes.

“According to him, they came into Abuja with N2million fake notes and they are already in circulation.  So efforts are on to recover other currencies mentioned by the suspects and of course to arrest other members of the syndicate.

“The notes we recovered have been sent to CBN for confirmation and these cases of fake currencies looks like work of syndicate. So we are trying very thing possible to track down the syndicate particularly the one that said it was N2million.

“Imagine poor citizens who may have contact with this fake currency.  I call on members of Police to continue to help the police”, Ladodo said.

On his part, Gafar said: “It was one of my brothers from Lagos that called me from Lagos that he needs job. I told him to come to Abuja. As he came, my three old son was down with malaria and I have spent a lot on him.

“I was complaining that the money I spent was too much. When  my brother heard me lamenting, he  told me that he came with money from Lagos and I asked him how much, he said it was N10,000 and he offered to give me the money.

“As he gave me the money on Sunday evening, I decided to take it to a POS operator because I wanted to save it.

“It was when we got to the operator that I discovered that the money was fake because the operator said so. I turned to my brother to ask if it was true but when I turned, he was nowhere to be found.

“The operator raised alarm and called the police.  I don’t know where my brother is at the moment and his phone number is not going through.

“I feel very bad because I was only trying to render help to my brother by telling him to come look for job in Abuja but he has brought me trouble.”

Also paraded were; Sadisu Mohammed ‘M’ 32 years, Lawal Adamu ‘M’ 31 years and Yusuf Saleh ‘M’ 31 years who allegedly specialiZe in car snatching.

The Police said: “Following a reported case of a car snatched at gunpoint on 12th February, 2018 at Lugbe, Police operatives from Lugbe Division have arrested members of the notorious car snatching syndicate and recovered the snatched Opel car with reg. no.: BLD 176 XA.

“Upon discreet investigation, the suspects were tracked down to their hideout at Angulu-Jos in Plateau State where they were arrested on 17th September, 2018.”

The Police said effort has been intensified to recover the firearm used by the gang for their robbery operations adding that the suspects will be charged to court upon the conclusion of investigation.

Also paraded were two suspects;  Adamu Jauro Bello and Sefullah Umar with sixteen and half bags of suspected Indian hemp from a warehouse in Tudun Wada area of Lugbe.

The Police also recovered from them two daggers, four bottles of codeine syrup, tramadol tablets, and Valium 5 tablets