One of the three suspected fraudsters, who specialised in impersonating prominent citizens across the country, has said he did not know their would-be victim would take the matter serious.
They were arrested by operatives of the Inspector General of Police Special Intelli-gence Response Team, IRT. Vanguard gathered that the suspects were arrested in Warri, Delta State when they attempted to defraud the Managing Director of one of the nation’s four refineries of N3 million.
Sources disclosed that one of the suspects, who was described as leader of the syndicate, called the managing director and identified himself as the Secretary to the Federal Government. He was said to have accused the MD of graft and asked him to pay N5 million if he does not want to be probed by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC.
It was gathered that the MD alerted the Inspector General of Police, Ibrahim Idris, who then deployed his operatives at the IRT, led by ACP Abba Kyari, to trail and apprehend the suspects. The suspects, who were arrested in Warri, Delta State, told Vanguard during an interview that they called the MD because they wanted to help one of their friends in prison, who was having issues with the MD.
One of the suspects told Vanguard that “I have no intention to defraud the MD, when I called him. I was only trying to settle a dispute between him and a man (he called Nosa), who is currently in prison. “Though I identified myself as the Secretary to the Government of the Federation when I called him, I urged him to hurriedly settle his dispute with his boy because the matter could tarnish his image. “I also asked him to send N3 million to me, but I didn’t collect any money from him. I didn’t know that the man would take the matter seriously.”
