Police nab fake Army officer harassing Lagos residents

Lagos State police have arrested a 31-year-old man, Harry Perry Obiajuru, for allegedly impersonating an army colonel.

Obiajuru, known as ‘Colonel Harry’ by many, was driving around in cars with the United Nations plate cover permit, and two soldiers with whom he allegedly molested members of the public.

Reports say a pump action riffle, two military camouflage caps, a sword, horsewhip and two vehicle plate covers on which were inscribed UN Officers car park permit, were recovered from his apartment at Shasha area of Lagos.

Police alleged that in February, Harry and the two soldiers that had been acting as his aides, went to a hotel in Shasha to harass four customers who allegedly refused to pay after spending four nights.

They allegedly beat the customers (three males and a female) and dragged them out of the hotel. The customers were allegedly forced to use the hotel’s POS to withdraw N15,000 out of the N18,000 owed, while their phones and laptop were seized in place of the balance of N3,000.

Harry was identified by his victims and beaten up in Shasha two weeks after, before police arrived to his rescue.

Police investigation revealed that he was a fake military man and that the two soldiers he usually went out with had long been dismissed from the force.

Harry, who claimed to be the coordinator of Harry Foundation, a charity organisation based in Shasha, denied parading himself as a colonel. He claimed people only called him colonel because some members of his family were in the military.

“I am not a colonel and the soldiers in question are not my orderlies. They (soldiers) brought a car to me in February this year that they wanted to sell. I contacted one of my aunties, who said I should bring the car, a Lexus for her to see. I took the car to her in company of the soldiers, but she said it was too small that she needed a SUV.

“On our way back I got a call from a friend who said his sister, owner of New Moon hotel was in distress. When we got there, we discovered that some lodgers refused to pay her for the four nights they spent. The soldiers banged on the door of the room they were but the youths refused to open, until the soldiers announced they were there with their boss, a colonel.

“When they opened the door, the soldiers flogged them with horsewhip. They could only pay N15,000 while one of the soldiers paid the balance of N3000. In return, he collected the items from the youths and drove off. While there, I received a call from the friend that earlier called me to save his sister. He instructed me to refund all the items to the boys that they had gone to the hotel to make trouble.

“Immediately, I drove to where the soldiers were but they only gave me a laptop and went with the rest items. But the boys kept mounting pressure on the owner of the hotel, thereby forcing me to go look for the soldiers at Ojo barracks to collect the seized items from them but I was told they were not there. It was when I got to Badagry barracks that the commander told me the soldiers had been dismissed from the force.

“When the pressure to return the seized item became unbearable, I was asked to pay N300,000, estimated as cost of the seized items. By March 2018, I paid N150,000 out of amount and I was given up till July to pay the balance. But I traveled to the village and returned at the end of August. To my shock, the boys called cultists to descend on me when I attended a friend’ s party,” he said.

He has been charged to court.