Fake Air Force officer arrested over three-year fraud scheme in Lagos

A 27-year-old man, Yusuf Abdullahi, has been arrested successful Lagos for allegedly impersonating a serving serviceman of the Nigerian Air Force and defrauding traders crossed large markets successful the authorities successful what authorities picture arsenic a long-running scheme.

Military officials said the fishy operated by presenting himself arsenic an Air Force personnel, utilizing subject camouflage to summation the assurance of unsuspecting traders earlier collecting goods and issuing fake slope transportation alerts.

His activities, investigators said, spanned respective markets successful Lagos and went undetected for years.

The cognition came to an extremity connected February 18, 2026, erstwhile traders astatine Ladipo Market raised an alarm implicit a antheral dressed successful subject attire who allegedly obtained goods without making valid payments.

He was initially restrained by traders earlier officers from the Ladipo Police Division intervened and took him into custody.

Confirming the arrest, the Public Relations Officer of the Nigerian Armed Forces Resettlement Centre, NAFRC, Commander Patricia Ochei, said the fishy claimed to beryllium a serving Air Force unit attached to 055 Camp, Lagos, prompting the engagement of subject constabulary from NAFRC.

According to her, verification carried retired by the Air Force revealed that Abdullahi was neither a serving subordinate nor a erstwhile unit o...