BY KINGSLEY OMONOBI

ABUJA-The Police at Force headquarters have uncovered a transfer scam running into about N20million, whereby an inspector and four other officers collected sums ranging between N30, 000 and N50, 000 to fraudulently post officers out of or back to their former positions after they had been officially posted to other commands.

The posting of these officers, which is done through the typing of fake signals and superimposing of the signature of the Commissioner of Police in charge, as well as other senior officers, is said to have been on for a long time until luck ran out on the perpetrators.

Even officers who are posted to state commands but are keen on returning to the offices they were posted out of, which could be such juicy offices as that of an IPO, etc can get their wish by paying more, between N50, 000 and N80, 000, depending on the rank of the officer.

The Police investigating team directed by the IGP to get to the root of the matter, it was learnt, has so far discovered that 206 officers were beneficiaries of the scam and that the officers are scattered around the 36 states and Abuja.

Head of the gang, Inspector Aruwa Angeh, who was said to have been dismissed from the Police Welfare department, is said to have benefitted to the tune of N10million from the scam, while his collaborators, including another Inspector, two Sergeants and a Corporal, benefitted from the balance.

It was gathered that of the 206 officers that benefitted, 60 of them had been traced by the investigating team and recalled to Abuja on the directive of the IG and that the perpetrators would be made to face orderly room trial.

Though the dismissed Inspector Aruwa is being sought for by the Police, it was learnt that other members of his gang may be stripped of Police status and made to face prosecution in the courts for the misdeeds.

On how the scam was exposed, Vanguard gathered that a carrier of one of the fake signal for a client in Anambra State travelled to Lagos instead of Onitsha, handed the parcel to another person going to Anambra for delivery.

The person had to get to Abuja before going to Anambra before the Commissioner of Police in charge of Welfare got wind of the contents of the parcel and ordered the arrest of the carrier.lFor allegedly collecting N20m