A Kogi State Chief Magistrate, Abdullahi Mopah, on Tuesday, ordered the detention in prison custody of a 53-year-old man, Augustine Obaje, for impersonation.
Obaje, described as a pastor, former state director of Peace Corps, and member of Kogi East Neighbourhood Watch (KENW), was charged with impersonating the Kogi State Director of the Department of State Services (DSS), Mr Tosin Ajayi and spreading false information about the immediate past governor of Kogi State, Alhaji Yahaya Bello.
Obaje, according to charges filed against him in court, ”fraudulently obtained the sum of three hundred thousand Naira (N300,000) from Dr. Simeon Oyigu Omakoji who is the Chairman Kogi East Neighbourhood Watch, under the false pretence that you were sent by Mr Tosin Ajayi, the State Director, State Security Service, Kogi State Command, thereby committed an offence of cheating by personating punishable under Section 322 of Kogi State Penal Code.”
And that the accused person also “committed an extortion by deliberately putting one Dr. Simeon Oyiguh Omakoji, the Chairman Kogi East Neighbourhood Watch, in fear of death to wit: that the Immediate Past Governor of Kogi State, Alhaji Yahaya Bello, has sent assassin and kidnappers to eliminate him thereby dishonestly induced that said Simeon Oyiguh Omakoji, to deliver various amount of money amounting to two million Naira, (2m) to avoid being kidnapped or killed, thereby committed an offence punishable under Section 294 of Kogi State Penal Code”
The prosecution counsel, Yahaya Olanrewaju, orally applied for the remand of the accused person pending the conclusion of the investigation.
