Sergeant jailed twice, on way back to prison

 A dismissed sergeant, who has been jailed twice for impersonation, may be on his way back to prison after he was arrested a third time for the same crime.

The suspect, Femi John, 52, said: “I want the Nigerian Police to take me back. What I did six years ago that led to my dismissal was just a hasty way of getting money to meet some demands.

“I have gone to jail twice for impersonating police and extorting people. I still love police job; I want police to take me back. There’s nothing else I can do for a living, except policing.”

John, who was arrested by the Oyo State Police Command, confessed to have been dismissed in 2012 for diversion of a 33,000-litre petroleum tanker in Oyo State.

The Oyo State Commissioner of Police, Mr. Abiodun Odude, presented John with 48 other suspects for different crimes and offences.

Odude said: "The suspect was recently arrested by the Iseyin Police Station for parading himself as a serving police officer and fraudulently extorting money from unsuspecting victims.”

Rather than be worried about his present predicament and the likelihood of going back to prison, John, right at the parade ground was begging and lobbying the Oyo State Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO) Adekunle Ajisebutu, to facilitate his return into the Nigerian Police.

John beseeched Odude: "My CP, I want you to facilitate my return to the police because there is nothing else I can do. I love the job. I know you can do it."

The CP responded: "How can the police take you back when you have messed up the organization? What did you do in the first place that led to your dismissal? If that was a mistake, why did you sew another uniform for yourself and started extorting people, presenting yourself as a serving police?"

According to the suspect, he sewed police uniform and presented himself as a policeman because, “I have to eat and feed my family. What else can I do to make a living? This is the only job I know and love.”

Although the CP and PPRO repeated told John that he couldn’t be absorbed back into the police, he insisted that he should be taken to Abuja, so that the process of taking him back would start.

Speaking with journalists, John said: “I was once a police sergeant. It was condition that forced me into impersonating. It was the problem I had while I was in service that led to my dismissal. I was dismissed because I diverted a truck loaded with 33,000 liters to somewhere in Fiditi to sell. After I sold it, I was arrested, tried and dismissed. I had been parading myself as a police officer simply because I needed to look for something to eat and feed my family. I have been arrested twice, and I was charged to court. I served just four months for my first offence, and six months for my second time in Agodi Prison. I will like to return to the police if I get the chance because policing is a job, which I love so much. I cannot rob and I have to survive.”

Asked why he sewed a police uniform and gave himself a rank of an Inspector, John replied: “I promoted myself to an Inspector of Police after I discovered that I was not promoted by the police authority. My colleagues, who were sergeant in 2012, were promoted to the rank of Inspectors. So, I also gave myself the rank of an Inspector.”