I Engage In Fraud To Hurt My Father — Arrested Fake Lawyer

*Says ‘I’m A Drop-Out Law Student Of UI

One Ayanrinde Abdulgafar, 25, who was arrested by Osun state command of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, NSCDC, for parading himself as a lawyer, said he engages in crime to hurt his father.

Abdulgafar, who was paraded at the Osun NSCDC command headquarters in Osogbo on Saturday, said he started the act of duping members of the public early this year.

Fielding questions from newsmen, he said, “My father abandoned me since childhood and I drop out of the University at 200-level due to paucity of funds to see through my education.

” I decided to venture into crime, disguising as a lawyer and defrauding people to hurt my father. I have duped my victims of over N200,000 since I started”.

While parading the suspect, the State Commandant, Agboola Sunday, said Abdulgafar, while wearing legal regalia, went to different courts in Osun and Kwara state to dupe unsuspecting members of the public.

He said the suspect was arrested in a hotel on Thursday, May 25, 2023, in Ilorin, Kwara State by the Command crack team in collaboration with Kwara State NSCDC command after committing the act at the Federal High Court, Akure and State High Courts in Osogbo and Ilorin.

He said: “The suspect presented himself as a Barrister of law to one driver on the 23rd May 2023 whose service he requested to drive him first to State High Court Osogbo before heading to Federal High Court, Akure.

“The suspect in his full regalia entered the court, exchange pleasantries with lawyers and thereafter approached a POS woman around the court premises and collected the sum of One hundred and fifty thousand naira with the aim to do the transfer.

“He had collected the phone of the driver to share his internet facility to help him transfer the money. He entered the court premises and disappeared into the thin air, only to be tracked to Ilorin, Kwara State”.

The suspect explained that he dropped out of the law department of the University of Ibadan in 2022 because he could no longer afford the tuition fee.

He said, “I decided to start practising as a fake lawyer to swindle people in courts because my father who is a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) decided to neglect myself and my mother after he impregnated her. I do this crime to spite him. I regret my action, my father is the one that destroyed my life. He denied me as his son and never took responsibility for me.”