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24—SATURDAY Vanguard, NOVEMBER 23, 2019 Facebook lover defrauds widow of N2.4m •Promises her marriage, Lexus 2019 model as wedding gift •Frustration pushed me into it—Suspect By Evelyn Usman Sometime in June 2019, a widow, identified simply as Chichi, received a friend’s request on her facebook page which she accepted. Sadly, her acceptance turned out to be her greatest undoing five months later, as the stranger turned out to be a fraudster. Before she realised what was happening, Chichi had been defrauded of N2.4 million. The 25-year-old suspect, Sunday Ijegalu, who hails from Enugu State, has however been arrested by operatives of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad, SARS. In her statement to the Police, Chichi explained that the suspect who claimed to be residing in Canada, kept chatting with her on Facebook daily, after receiving his friend request. She said, “He told me his mother lived in Calabar and that his only brother was in the United Kingdom. He asked about my marital status and my state of origin and when I told him I was a widow and from Anambra state, he screamed and said his father was from Anambra and that he was also a widower”. In the course of the continued conversation, she said that he proposed to her and fixed September 28, 2019 as the date for the traditional wedding. To further convince her, the suspect gave her Chichi a telephone number which he claimed was his mother’s. But during preliminary investigation, it was discovered that the telephone number the suspect claimed was his mother’s actually belonged to him but would change his voice to sound like an old woman’s voice anytime the victim called to speak with her supposed motherin-law. Crime Guard gathered that the suspect also sent the picture of a Lexus 2019 model to the victim, claiming he would present it to her as a wedding gift, when he returned to Nigeria to formalise the marriage. The plot However, shortly before the time he promised to return to Nigeria, Chichi said, “he called me on phone to say that his mother had been shot by armed robbers back home and that she urgently needed blood transfusion. He begged me to send N400,000 to his relatives for the hospital bill, that it was too late for him to go to the bank. He promised to refund the money when he returned to Nigeria and I did as he requested “. She further stated that he called her using a local number in the month of September, to inform her that he had just arrived Nigeria and that he was on his way to see his mother in Calabar, to know how far the family had gone about the preparation for the wedding. According to Chichi, “when he got to Calabar, he called me to speak with his mother. She greeted me, saying she could not wait to have me as a daughter-in-law. She told me that her son intended to buy some property in Calabar and Port Harcourt. But few day later, I received another call from a man who claimed to be my supposed mother-in-law’s driver. He told me that my fiance had been kidnapped. I was in panic and didn’t know what to do. I later received a phone call from a stranger who claimed my fiance was with them. I requested to speak with him and when they gave him the phone, he was crying and begged me to come to his rescue. He said that the kidnappers demanded N20 million as ransom. He said he had N18m and I should look for N2 million. I had to rally round to get N2m which I sent”. Immediately the money was paid, she said she did not hear from her supposed lover again. Effort to reach him on Facebook proved abortive as she discovered he had blocked her. At that point she rushed to the police, suspecting that something was amiss. Face-to face with the fraudster When Chichi met with the suspect after his arrest, she expressed shock at his unkempt appearance which she said was totally different from the picture he displayed on Facebook. During interrogation, the suspect, a primary school leaver, revealed that he used the picture of someone else on Facebook. He boldly declared that he was into online business when asked what type of job he did. Asked why he decided to go for such •Suspect fraudulent job, he responded, “I went to learn a trade on sale of machine parts in Eboyi state to enable me start mine. But barely had I started my own business in my home town than my shop was demolished by the state government. I bought a car which I was using for commercial transport but I was duped and forced to sell the car. After that, I started learning how to repair automatic gear box. After I gathered some money, I travelled to Austra in 2017 but the person who was supposed to pick me up at the airport didn’t show up and I was deported. Back home, I started work as a commercial bus driver but I was involved in an accident this year. Frustration made me to go for online business. I sent out friend requests to several persons but she was the only one who accepted it. “I only defrauded her of N1.4 million, not N2.4million as she claimed. She sent them at different times. She first sent N60,000 for my mother’s birthday, another N40,000 when she was sick and N1.2 million for my kidnap which never happened. “The picture of the Lexus jeep I sent to her was from the internet. My mother never spoke to her. I pretended as if it was my mother who was speaking whenever she called to further convince her to believe me. I used a small phone which has a device to change voice. You can only get that in small phones not android” •Suspect Police foil guard’s attempt to dump girlfr •I didn’t kill her, she drank concoction—suspect By Evelyn Usman A25- year-old private guard, Shadrach Daniel, has been arrested by detectives of the State Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Bureau, SCIID, Yaba, Lagos, over an alleged attempt to dump the corpse of a lady into a lagoon in Elemoro area of Lekki. Recovered from him, was A Sports Utility Vehicle belonging to his boss, which he was using to escape was recovered from him. Sources said he conveyed the corpse in the vehicle and was at the verge of disposing it when a resident raised the alarm. Coincidentally, by the time an angry mob arrived the scene at Shapati Frajed, Ibeju Lekki, there were two other persons with Daniel. The angry mob which concluded they could be ritualists, descended on them. But for the swift intervention of some residents who alerted the police, Daniel and those with him would have been lynched. Crime Guard however gathered that the two persons with Daniel were owner of the vehicle and her friend who went to search for Daniel when they discovered that the SUV was missing. Also, the lifeless body was discovered to be that of a lady simply identified as Victory, the suspect’s girlfriend. In an interview with the suspect, he denied having anything to do with Victory’s death. Rather, he disclosed that she was pregnant for him and that he was prepared to marry he According to the Kaduna-State born suspect, “Victor was my girlfriend she worked as a maid in Lekki. Sh told me she was pregnant for me two months ago and asked her to leave the pregnancy that I would marry he “On Monday, October 28, 2019, she called me on th phone complaining that she had headache and I aske her to take pain relief medicine. The following day, sh visited and still complained of headache. I gave he paracetamol, she slept for a while and by the time sh was leaving for her place later that day, she said she wa okay. “Two days later, on a Thursday, I was washing m madam’s car, when Victory came holding her head an screaming. In my confused state, I took her in m madam’s car and drove to a hospital at Sangotedo bu they refused to attend to her. From there I took her t another one where the doctor told me she was dead. immediately called her mother who advised that I shoul
. y e I r. e d e r e s y How tracking device installed in inver erter ers gave thieves es away •We sell stolen inverter batteries for N20,000 each —suspect By Evelyn Usman Telecommunication companies and outsourced operators have always complained about their inverter batteries used to power masts being stolen thereby leaving subscribers to bear the brunt of poor network, occasioned by epileptic power supply. To safe guard these batteries, tracking devices were therefore installed inside the batteries but some of these criminals still found means of destroying the device, at the point of vandalising the inverter batteries. But like everything that has an end, two members of a suspected gang that specialised in vandalising telecommunication masts were arrested by operatives of the Special Anti- Robbery Squad, Lagos State Police Command. The suspects: Kazeem Kareem, 27 and Sunday Joseph , 41, were arrested at the Arena Shopping plaza in Oshodi area of Lagos, at about 2.30am, Thursday, at the point of selling six stolen inverters to a ready buyer. Police sources hinted that they were traced to the spot through the tracking device installed inside two of the stolen batteries Information at the disposal of Crime Guard had it that the command received information on the invasion of a Mast owned by ATC company in Ikorodu. The Commander, SARS, CSP Peter Gana, was then directed to get the suspects arrested, consequent upon which they were traced to Arena. In an encounter with the suspects, one of them, Kareem disclosed that he belonged to a gang of four that was responsible for several stolen inverters. He said, “I joined the gang last year and we were three in the gang; Sunday, Colabo and myself. Since I joined them, we had vandalised telecommunication equipments six times: at Oyingbo, Ijora and Ikorodu areas of Lagos. “Sunday is the leader of the gang. Anytime we were going for operation, he would contact us on phone to tell us where we would meet. It was his job to look for where telecommunication masts were mounted. Thereafter, he would take us there. During operation, while Colabo and Sunday would be busy removing them from where they were fixed and thereafter bring them to the car, my job was to watch out for intruder or the Police. After vandalising them, we would take them to Arena market where they would be sold for N20,000 or N30,000 each and I would get N20,000 or N25,000. “We usually went away with all the inverter batteries found which were usually between eight and 12”. On his part, Sunday claimed he was an Uber driver. He said he went to drop off the suspects only to be arrested. However upon further probe, he disclosed that he had conveyed the suspects twice, from where they vandalised inverter batteries, to where they sold them. He said, “I work mainly at night, around clubs. They saw me on one occasion and asked me to take them to a place and wait for them outside. On the first day, after taking them to Arena, they paid me N15,000. But they were yet to pay me for this when the police swooped on us. Before the arrival of the police, they (suspects) attempted to remove the tracker from two batteries. Kareem had succeeded in opening the lock to remove the tracker when the police arrived”, said the Oyo- State-born. iend’s corpse into lagoon take her to her sister’s place but we did not meet the woman at home. “All the while, my phone had been ringing but I didn’t pick. By the time I picked, I discovered it was my madam who had been calling. She asked where I was and ordered me to bring back her car. She thought I stole it but I told her that I was heading back home. She met me on the road and asked me to take the person with me out of her car. Even when I tried to explain what happened to her, she wouldn’t listen but insisted I should leave the car. I brought out my dead girlfriend and held on to her body d man came but as and my said madam we should was quarreling not dump with the corpse me, a y t o I d in that community. He thought I wanted to throw the corpse into the lagoon that was close by. He alerted residents, calling us yahoo yahoo. Without waiting to listen to our explanations, some youths came and descended on me, my madam and her friend. I have nothing to do with Victory’s death. •Suspects She told me that she took some concoction to abort the pregnancy”, he said. Arrested alongside the suspect was one Olapade Jayeola, a commercial bus driver who admitted to have raised the alarm that alerted the mob which almost lynched the victims. He said he raised the alarm in order to save residents the trouble of paying for a sin they knew nothing about. He said, “I was returning home when I overheard them arguing about the dead body. I told them not to throw it into the lagoon because the Police would come for us in the course of investigation. But the woman among them did not listen. As she was about entering her car to drive off, I stood in her way. It was at that moment that people gathered and started beating them. They also destroyed the vehicle”. Investigation into the matter according to the Lagos State Police Public Relations Officer, DSP Elkana Bala, was still ongoing, to ascertain the circumstances surrounding the lady’s death. SATURDAY Vanguard, NOVEMBER 23, 2019—25 Bank Robbery: N25m, foreign currency carted ted away y as Police arrest t top management staf aff By Rotimi Ojomoyela Two top managerial staff of the old generation bank in Oye- Ekiti have been arrested by the police, Thursday. The bank staff were allegedly arrested in connection with a bank robbery that saw men of the underworld carting away with N25 million and a huge sum of foreign currency recently. The Ekiti State Commissioner of police, Mr Amba Asuquo who visited the bank on assessment tour on Friday, alleged that “there was internal connivance between the bank officials and the robbers going by the startling revelations of the Close Circuit Television (CCTV).” According to the Commissioner, it was discovered the bank officials allegedly opened the bank strong room seven minutes before the robbers struck. He also alleged that the CCTV revealed how the bankers and a customer, who ran inside upon hearing the gunshots, had seized the robbery opportunity to stuff money into their pockets as they moved frequently into the vault before the bandits blasted the security door with over seven Improvised Explosive Devise(IED). The police boss disclosed that between the time the bandits attacked the Police Divisional Office, which was about the 300 metres away from the bank and the said time they struck, was enough for the bankers to have escaped after closing the vault, but refused for the sinister intention they allegedly harboured. He said: “The summary of it is that, there was internal connivance and it is unfortunate. There was a similarity between this robbery and the one we had at Ise-Ekiti recently. “It baffles me that there were suspected insiders’ connivance in the whole issue. Plus or minus, there was a missing link and it is that link that we are working upon, trying to investigate. “The banking policy does not allow us to post mobile policemen to the bank for a reason known to them and this started in 2016 based on the letter written by the bank requesting for only plain clothed policemen. “Between the time the robbers attacked our men and the time the robbery took place, the staff had enough time to escape through the exit door. They were captured by CCTV moving in and out of the vault. The vault was even opened before the robbers came. “Despite the opportunity, none of them made efforts to escape, they were stuffing money and there was evidence to prove this. “The staff opened the vault by 3:5pm and the robbers blew up the security door at 3.12pm, this gave a strong suspicion that there was internal collaboration in this matter, it showed complicit. “All these are the dynamics we are studying and that will form the basis for our thorough investigation.” Asuquo revealed that a carton was recovered by the police inside the bank containing over N2 million that was hidden by one of the bankers before the operation. He said: “The carton was hidden under the table within the banking hall. This should be part of the the loots from the strong room.” Meanwhile, the mother of the seven-year-old child who was shot dead during the robbery operation had been taken to her town. The deceased little child was said to be her only. However, the bandits who first attacked the Divisional Police station in Oye Ekiti before moving to the bank, burnt a police van used to block Ilupeju-Oye highway and killed a police sergeant in the process. IPMAN impounds adulterated petroleum products in A/Ibom By Harris Emanuel Uyo---Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN), in Akwa Ibom State has impounded petroluem products suspected to be adulterated and handed them to the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC). The items included; 25 Jerry cans of adulterated diesel, 32 improvised plastic container bags, buckets and other accessories used in carrying out the illicit trade. Handing over the seized products to the Area Commandant of the NSCDC, Oron Zone, Iniobong Ekong, Head of Operations, Petroleum Products Crime of IPMAN, Sunday Ekwi said, the products were concealed in plastic bags and kept at a location in Afaha Ube, off Atiku Abubakar Avenue in Uyo to avoid detection. According to him, petroleum smugglers have devised new methods in carrying out their nefarious activities, by concealing drums of adulterated petroleum products in improvised plastic bags, so as to beat detection by the security agents. Ekwi assured that, IPMAN in Akwa Ibom would collaborate with NSCDC in eradicating all forms of petroleum products adulteration in the state. He said, "we are determined to assist law enforcement agencies in the state to fight petroleum products crimes because, it is an act of sabotage against the Federal government and an injury to our economy. "Adulteration and smuggling of petroleum products is a common crime around the riverine areas of the state, because of the terrain. And we promise that IPMAN team would soon embark on awareness campaigns in riverine communities on the dangers of adulterated petroleum products. " The Zonal Head of NSCDC, Oron, Iniobong Ekong while receiving the items, commended IPMAN monitoring team for assisting the agency in the fight against petroleum products crimes in the state. "We commend the effort of IPMAN team, which is barely a month in the State for assisting the law enforcement agencies in fighting petroleum products crimes, and do wish to assure that, you will continue to have our support," she said.
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