The Lagos State Police Command has detained a female Inspector, an Assistant Superintendent of Police and a corporal, all attached to the insurance section of the command for allegedly collecting the insurance claims of dead and non-existent policemen.

According to reports, the arrested officers whose names were yet to be ascertained as at press time, had allegedly defrauded the Police Force by collecting the claims of policemen reportedly worth millions of naira.

An unnamed police source disclosed to Punch that the suspects, who are to undergo an orderly room trial, were arrested by the X-Squad Section of the command after a petition reached the police authorities that families of some dead policemen had yet to get the claims.

According to the source, each of the deceased officers had a claim of about N500, 000 which the three suspects had allegedly diverted and were subsequently arrested.

“The policemen are attached to the insurance section, and they are in charge of handling the claims and gratuities of deceased officers.

“What happened was that they defrauded the police by collecting money on behalf of non-existent and dead policemen. Their mode of operation is to cook up names of policemen, claim that the policemen are dead, and then collect their claims. The money runs into millions,” the police source said, adding that they are currently in the cell, and they are going to face an orderly room trial.

“It was when a petition got to the command that investigation began into the matter. We went to some divisions where the three officers claimed policemen had died and had collected gratuities for them, but we discovered that there were no such names.

The source said it was also discovered that the families of some dead policemen, whose claims had been paid by the police, had not got their claims.

“That was how the three were arrested. The total sum of the fraud is not known, but if each insured policeman gets about N500, 000, then the amount runs into millions,” the source noted.

The Police Public Relations Officer, PPRO, DSP Joe Offor, who confirmed the arrest declined to name the suspects. He said investigation was ongoing into the matter, confirming that some police officers were arrested on an allegation of fraud.

Offor said, “The fraud borders on tampering with records of deceased members of the Force. We have some families of deceased policemen whose families said they died as far back as 2013, and the families had not got their entitlements.

“Investigation is ongoing into the matter because there could still be others involved,” the PPRO added.