… Suspects Demanded N50m After Cloning Gov’s Official Line
The Lagos State Government on Tuesday commenced trial of two suspects arraigned for attempting to defraud the State Government to the tune of N50 million by cloning the official line of the State Governor, Mr Akinwunmi Ambode.
The suspects – Rilwanu Jamiu and Balogun Oyewole were arraigned before Justice Sedoten Ogunsanya of the Lagos High Court in Igbosere on three-count charge bordering on the alleged crime.
Specifically, they are standing trial for possession of fraudulent document, impersonation and attempt to commit felony.
While testifying before the court, the State’s Accountant General, Mrs Abimbola Shukurat Umar revealed how she received a text message from the suspects on February 10, 2016, purportedly from Governor Ambode, directing her to transfer the sum of N50million to a designated Keystone Bank account.
Umar, who was led in evidence by the State’s Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Mr Adenijii Kazeem, said she found the message suspicious and highly irregular of the official accounting protocol.
This, prompted her to bring the message to the attention of the Governor, who, after distancing himself from the message, ordered the immediate investigation of the matter.
The investigation, which was conducted by the Department of State Security (DSS), led to the eventual arrest of the defendants, who were subsequently charged before the court.
The prosecution also called Mr Wale Odu, Director of DSS, Lagos State Command, to give evidence in the matter.
In his testimony, Odu confirmed that the investigation leading to the arrest of the defendants was conducted by his team.
According to him, investigation revealed that the second defendant (Oyewole) is one of the directors and shareholders of a firm, Clayder Limited to whose Keystone Bank account, the N50million fraud money would have been paid.
The matter was later adjourned to February 14, 2018 for continuation of the trial, while the defendants were to continue to be remanded at the Kirikiri Medium Security Prison.
In November 2017, a US-based Nigerian businessman, Kennedy Chukwuemeka Nwabuoku, was scammed by land agents who sold the Lagos Lagoon to him for N787.5 million.
According to media reports, he told detectives led by DCP Abutu Yaro, at the Force Criminal Investigations and Intelligence Department (FCIID), Alagbon, how he had paid N577, 590, 792 in installments among other charges, plus another N18 million for bush clearing in February, and “how the agents were sending him pictures and videos of caterpillars in action at the purported site at Ifedele Agunbiade Village, Sangotedo, in Eti-Osa area of Lagos.”
Nwabuoku told the police that he bought the unseen land with a foreign partner and had paid in fiduciary trust, sending monies on different occasions through his company, KenBouk Global Investment Ltd.
Identified as Emeka Okoronkwo and Michael Owolabi Alonge, the agents, according to Nwabuoku, had offered the land for sale at N5, 250, 000 per plot with Certificate of Occupancy (C of O).
When Nwabuoku arrived and insisted he must see the site before further payments, the report indicated further that Alonge allegedly took him to a location far inside a wooded area that led to the lagoon “with canoes going back and forth.”
“Mr Michael Owolabi Alonge started pointing around and towards the lagoon, as if he was not sure where the land is anymore,” Nwabuoku stated in his petition to the police.