A 29-year-old man, Henry Ogu and
his accomplice Yunusa Okonkwo, 42 have been arrested by the Special
Fraud Unit of the Nigeria Police Force, Ikoyi, Lagos for allegedly
duping an American woman the sum of N52.5m ($350000).
The suspects, Henry and Okonkwo
The
victim who lives in New Jersey claimed to have met Henry sometime in
April 3013 on a dating site and they both started a relationship. She
said she sent $350,000.00 to two account numbers provided by Henry who
had told her he was having financial trouble in Nigeria.
In
a statement by the SFU Police Public Relations Officer DSP Ngozi
Isintume-Agu, she said the unit had received a petition via email from
the victim and after investigation, the police found out the account
belonged to Okonkwo who was arrested. After which he led the police to
Henry, the prime suspect.
Upon
interrogation, Okonkwo confessed to being the owner of the account
numbers which was used for the illicit transactions. He later converted
the money to naira which he sent to another account number in Diamond
bank with account name Raydeus Synergy Nigeria Limited which Henry gave
to him.
Okonkwo, who was a patent
medicine dealer and also ran a Bureau De Change added that he had
deducted his commission of N2 per dollar before paying the money to
Henry.
Henry also confessed to the
crime, saying he had spent all the money. He used N9m to purchase a
heavy duty generator which has been recovered by the police. He also
purchased a plot of land for N800,000 along the Lagos – Ibadan
Expressway and the cash sum of N2m was also recovered from him.
Investigation
is still ongoing as efforts are being made to recover the the remaining
money gotten from the fraud and the suspects will be charged to court
to serve as a deterrent to others.
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