The State NSCDC Public Relations Officer, Babawale Afolabi, who disclosed this in a statement on Wednesday March 9, said that the suspects were going about petrol stations in the Ilorin metropolis, claiming to be Civil Defence officers on national assignment from Abuja.

Afolabi said that investigations had commenced confirming whether the suspects are running a syndicate with other members in the 16 local government areas of the state.

“On the 8th of March, 2022 at about 1422 hours, our anti-vandal unit led by ACC Yusuf got an intelligence report that some groups of men, who put on uniforms of Civil Defence have been going around filling stations in Ilorin metropolis claiming to be members of the national task force on assignment from Abuja. After meeting the managers of the petrol stations, they will collect money from them, because the petrol sellers believe that they were officers of the NSCDC,” he stated.

The spokesperson said that the suspects identified as Saheed Adedayo, 37, Muritala Oloruntoyin, 40, Emmanuel Ferife, 45, Abiodun Oluseun, 44 and Isaac Aluko, 43, all claimed to be members of the Importers Association of Nigeria, and have been going around extorting money from unsuspected petrol sellers.

Luck, however, ran out of them as they got to a filling station at Amilegbe area of Ilorin when the office of the anti-vandal unit was contacted by the management of the petrol station. The unit patrol team later swung into action and the five suspects were apprehended.