The Department of State Services (DSS) has arrested a 62-year-old suspect for alleged impersonation as a staff of the service to defraud unsuspecting jobseekers.
Director of Osun State DSS Command, Mr Brown Ekwoaba, paraded the suspect identified as one Prince Kehinde Adelabu on Friday at the service’s headquarters in Osogbo, the Osun State capital.
“I have invited you here to present to you one Prince Kehinde Ademola Festus Adelabu who has been on the command’s radar following complaints of his nefarious activities, including impersonation as a staff of the Department of State Services (DSS) as well as fraud,” Ekwoaba told reporters.
“Adelabu has been parading himself across Osun, Ondo, Oyo, and Kwara states as Assistant Director of DSS in charge of Recruitment and defrauding unsuspecting victims of large sums of money in the name of facilitating their enlistment into the DSS.”
The DSS director disclosed that Adelabu was apprehended last month in Ede, allegedly while trying to defraud one of his victims.
He added that the suspect who is an ex-convict has confessed to defrauding no fewer than 16 people and would be arraigned in court as soon as investigations were concluded.
“The Special Incident Response Team (SIRT) of the command on December 20, 2018, at a filling station in Owode-Ede, Ede North Local Government intercepted Adelabu while in the process of obtaining money from one of his victims,” Ekwoaba revealed.
“Upon questioning, the suspect confessed to engaging in the act, promising to turn a new leaf. Adelabu who is 62 years old and an indigene of Ado Ekiti revealed that he is a former staff of the defunct National Electric Power Authority (NEPA) but was sacked in 2012.”
The DSS director said 16 of the suspect’s victims have come forward and asked those seeking to be enlisted into the service to wary of people who parade themselves as recruitment officers.
He stated that the service has no such designation in its organisation structure, noting that Adelabu would be prosecuted to serve as a deterrent to others.
On his part, the suspect appealed to the DSS to show mercy and promised never to be involved in such criminal offences again.
