The Police in Sokoto has arrested a self-confessed fraudster, Mahmuda Hamza, who has been extorting money from people with a police identity card.

Parading the suspect with some area boys at the police headquarters in the state on Friday, the command’s Public Relations Officer, DSP Cordelia Nwawe, maintained that the Commissioner of Police in the state has declared war against area boys and other miscreants.

The PPRO also advised parents to talk to their wards to be law-abiding “as it is not going to be business as usual for criminals in the state.”

Hamza, in an interview with our correspondent, explained that he took the identity card from a deceased policeman and attached his passport photograph to it.

“I am a fraudster and I know I have committed an offence but I am pleading, I will not go into crime again if I am pardoned. I am not an armed robber, but a fraudster. I have two wives and seven children and I feed them all from the money I make through this fraud,” he explained.

The police also paraded one Usman Danmaliki, who hired dismissed police officers to extort money from villagers.

Danmaliki was rearrested in a court premises after appearing before a magistrate for a similar offence.

One of his victims, Aliyu Usman Rikina, had accused Danmaliki of harassment and extortion.

“He was using some dismissed police officers to intimidate and extort money and other valuables from our people in Dange Shuni village,” Rikina alleged.

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