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ν Police nab 7 suspects targeting 125 Lagos businessmen
Operatives of the Anti-Kidnapping Unit of the Lagos State Police Command, led by CSP Sunday Cirman, have arrested seven suspected members of two fraud syndicates allegedly targeting successful businessmen and women in different markets across the state.
Members of the syndicates reportedly went as far as abducting some of their victims and holding them captive until ransom was paid before releasing them.
The suspects, who described themselves as “local 419”, said they targeted gullible Nigerians, particularly women, exploiting their greed and desire to make quick money.
The police also uncovered a list containing the names of more than 125 business operators in different markets across Lagos State who had allegedly been pencilled down as targets by one of the gangs.
According to the police, members of one of the syndicates lured a tyre merchant to the Aiyetoro-Itele area of Ogun State, where they held him captive and collected about N24 million in ransom before releasing him.
The gang reportedly met its Waterloo when members lured a cloth seller to the Ayobo area of Lagos, where operatives of the Anti-Kidnapping Unit swooped on them and arrested three members.
Majority of the members of the two syndicates, however, claimed that they joined the criminal enterprise after allegedly falling victim to fraudsters, a development they said affected their businesses and sources of livelihood.
A police source said: “The two groups use different tactics, but their mode of operation is that they target prospective investors or traders and end up defrauding them in the process.”
One of the arrested suspects, 61-year-old Patrick Nwankwo, an indigene of Imo State, claimed that he joined the gang after his second-hand clothing business collapsed.
Nwankwo said: “I was into second-hand clothes selling at the popular Katangua Market. At a time, the business failed and, around that period, I lost my wife. I used the little money that was remaining with me to bury my late wife.”
He explained that he started his criminal career as a “caller”, whose responsibility was to identify and establish contact with prospective victims.
“I started as a ‘caller’. A caller is a person who goes out to identify and speak with our prospective victims. We identify businessmen. After this, we lie to them that someone is in need of a large supply of a particular commodity and ask them to supply.
“We usually use bicycle spare parts as the commodity supposedly needed. Another member of the gang will serve as the receiver. Once they supply the items to him, we disappear from the address,” he said.
Nwankwo revealed that the gang’s base was in Ogun State, but that its members targeted businessmen operating in some of the biggest markets in Lagos.
“Our base is in Ogun State, but we target businessmen at popular markets, including Oshodi, Arena, Idumota, Alaba and Trade Fair Market. We already have our targets and know what they sell,” he said.
Asked how the gang managed to convince its victims, Nwankwo said: “We don’t pray for gullible people to finish. Gullible people cannot finish in Nigeria. They want to get very rich quickly and we take advantage of that.”
Another suspect, 60-year-old Emeka Obi, said he used to work as a “caller” but had stopped because of his age.
“I used to be a caller, but now I am old. I only allow them to use my office for their operations and I get only 10 per cent of whatever they get from their victims,” he said.
Obi claimed that he joined the gang after he was allegedly duped while operating a drug store.
“I was operating a drug store, but I was duped by a gang. When I got back to the same people who duped me, they asked me to join them and I did.
“After serving my boss for six years, I had my own shop. Somebody told me that they had drugs in large quantity, but when I got to where I was supposed to get the drugs, I saw a large quantity of American dollars. I didn’t know that they were fake.
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“I was asked to deposit the N400, 000 that was with me. That was a large amount of money then, in 1990,” he said.
He added: “Initially, after collecting my money, they ran away. But after they came back, I asked to join them and, since then, I have made more than the N400, 000 that I lost to them.”
Forty-seven-year-old Charles Okeke, another member of the first syndicate who hails from Imo State, said he was a shoemaker in Aba, Abia State, before he joined the fraud business.
“I joined in 2018, when I was duped while trying to travel out. I was taken to Ghana. Mr Eze took me to Ghana and abandoned me there. He promised to take me to Europe or America but abandoned me in Ghana.
“I started looking for something to do. I met some Nigerians. I was doing shoe making and the money was nothing to write home about.
“I met a boy, Chukwudi, and a Ghanaian, Jojome. They invited me to join them and we duped people under the guise of washing money for them,” he said.
According to him, the gang initially lured victims with gold but later changed its method.
“They lured them with gold. We could not make enough money. Later, my mother died and I had to come back to Nigeria for her burial.
“When I came back and my family saw my situation, they advised me not to return to Ghana. They said that I was not doing well. They complained about me not making enough.
“Because of hardship, my wife left with my two children. It was while I was looking for what to do that I met Emeka through one of our town brothers, who was also into the fraud business but had quit,” he said.
A member of the second syndicate, 53-year-old Emmanuel Ekenta, an indigene of Awka, Anambra State, also claimed that he joined the gang after he was duped in Togo, where he had gone to do business.
Ekenta said: “I was a successful businessman. I was exporting plates to Ghana then and I was doing well. The problem started when I was duped at the Togo border. Ghanaian and Igbo people duped me. They lied to me that they wanted to wash dollars for me in 2006.”
He confessed that after he was duped, he requested to join the gang.
“After I requested to join them, they directed me to their boss in Lagos. He is the one that taught me how to dupe. I worked with Taiye for six years,” he said.
Ekenta explained that the gang used different roles to execute its operations.
“What we do is that one of us, usually the ‘catcher’, will pose as a sailor and a foreigner who just arrived in Lagos with goods for sale. We then tell our prospective victim that she would make huge money by selling these non-existent goods.
“After agreeing to sell the goods, the ‘catcher’ will pretend to take her to the place where the goods are kept but instead take her to our base, where we introduce her to the dollar-washing business.
“It is the normal thing of telling them that we have dollars but need chemicals to wash them. They will be asked to pay for the chemicals. That is how we collect money from them.
“There is usually the ‘sitter’, who sits at our base. He corroborates whatever the ‘catcher’ has already told the victims. He will lie to them and pretend to be the younger brother of the customs officer who cleared the goods,” he said.
Forty-six-year-old Uchenna Paul, a former foodstuff seller, also claimed that he joined the group after he was allegedly duped of his master’s money while on an assignment from Abia State to Lagos to purchase stock fish.
The Lagos State Police Public Relations Officer, SP Abimbola Adebisi, confirmed the arrest of the suspects.
She reiterated the resolve of the Commissioner of Police, Fatai Tijani, to make Lagos State uninhabitable for criminals.
