In a scene that played out like a badly scripted Nollywood movie, a dismissed pregnant female 'police officer', Funmilayo Balogun, has been arrested for stealing a Honda Crosstour car worth N5m from a car dealer in Abeokuta, Ogun State, and later sold it for N3.5m, having collected the sum of N2m from the unsuspecting buyer.

The 35-year-old 'policewoman' who was paraded by the Ogun State Police Command at the Special Anti-Robbery Squad, SARS, Magbon, Abeokuta, according to the state Commissioner of Police, Ikemefuna Okoye, was dismissed as a corporal in 2010 from the Ondo State Police Command over fake result but that since her dismissal, has been impersonating as an Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP), deceiving Nigerians and committing various atrocities till the long arms of the law caught up with her.

The Police Commissioner explained that Balogun came to Abeokuta about two months ago and stole a car dealer and sold it. Since then, she has been on the run until her arrest recently in Lagos while the stolen car was recovered in Port Harcourt, Rivers State.

Narrating the scenario to newsmen, Okoye said:‎
"This woman specialised in stealing vehicles. She is specialised in deceiving people, going to car dealers to deceive them that she wants to buy a car. She will bargain with them, after which she will now tell them that they should follow her to the bank to cash money.

 From there, she will discharge the dealer and take away the vehicle. I don't know how she came about the police uniform and that is what she has been using to defraud people. In this particular case, she came into Abeokuta, she negotiated with a car dealer and then pretended to be coming to the state police headquarters, Eleweran. They believed her and gave her two boys to follow her.

She came into the headquarters, drove round, deceived them and went out, came back and dropped one of the boys and asked the other one to follow her to the bank to collect the money.

While their master was inside the office waiting for them, he could not see them and he had to call them; they said that they were still waiting for the woman. Their boss now sent another boy to the so-called bank. The boy went there and was at the bank waiting for this woman.

Then, the dealer called the woman again and asked about her whereabouts. She said she was in the bank. While they were waiting, the next time he called, the woman said she was still processing the money.

After that, she switched off her phones and headed for Ibadan, the Oyo State capital, from where she escaped with the car. When the dealers reported the matter, we investigated and the investigation landed us in Port Harcourt where we recovered that vehicle after arresting the woman in Lagos."

The suspect confessed that she actually stole the car but that it was her first time since she was dismissed.

She said she regretted her action and appealed to the government to pardon her because of her children. Balogun, who stated that she already had twins, advised authorities of the police to desist from dismissing erring officers. She noted that frequent dismissal of officers could escalate crime rate in the country.

•BBN360