Abiodun Adewale, a Lagos State trader, has lost five bags of rice valued at one hundred and seventeen thousand, five hundred naira to a fake soldier.
According to Niger delta connect news the suspect, who is still at large, pretended to be a soldier working at the Army Command Barracks area in Ipaja, Lagos State, and placed an order for rice bags from Adewale.
The unwary trader told newsmen that he was convinced when the suspect called him on the phone asking for a supply of 12 bags of rice for some soldiers in the barracks.
The suspect allegedly directed Adewale to take the bags to a location in the barracks after they agreed on a price for the products.
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Adewale narrate further that he connected a delivery man with the suspect, who told him to bring the products to the same address.
He said,
When the delivery man got there, he said he saw the man, who showed him some of the soldiers in need of the goods.
He told him to offload the goods at the command quarter guard in the barracks. When my delivery man conveyed five of the 12 bags the man ordered to the gate, he was about to offload when the soldier rushed to tell him that his commander was around; he redirected the delivery man to offload the goods at his wife’s shop opposite the barracks.
Unknown to us, he actually begged the woman to allow the goods to be offloaded at her shop and the woman agreed because she also thought he was a soldier. But out of curiosity, the woman used her phone to take his picture in case any problem arose.
So, when my delivery man left to get the remaining goods, the man went to the woman’s shop and carted away the goods. He has been on the run since then. His telephone number has also been switched off since the incident happened on September 7, 2021. I reported the case at the Meiran Police Station.
While sober from the latest occurrence, Adewale recalls how he just lost seven bags of rice worth N164,500 to burglars who broke into his shop on August 31, 2021.
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He said;
I was making plans to restock when I was advised not to restock so that the people who committed the crime won’t return to burgle my shop again.
They also advised me to secure my shop properly. So, I stopped putting goods in the shop and changed location. I was still looking for a means to secure the shop when I received the call from the fake soldier.
We approached the soldiers at the barracks and they said the man was not a soldier. They said he wanted to supply them rice on that day and requested money but they told him to deliver the goods before they would transfer money to him,” he added.
While the issue is still being investigated, CSP Adekunle Ajisebutu, the state Police Public Relations Officer, had vowed to contact reporters after being briefed on the situation.
