The operatives
of the Police Special Fraud Unit (PSFU), Ikoyi, Lagos, have arrested
two employees of telecommunications giant, MTN, three bankers and six
others for allegedly fleecing subscribers of over N150 million.
Chukwunonso
Ifeanyi (30) and Okpetu John (29), who both confirmed they were MTN
employees, were paraded alongside the bankers- Oyelade Shola (32),
Osuolale Hammid (40) and Akeem Adesina (33) by the spokesman for the
SFU, Lawal Audu, an Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP).
Others were an ICT
specialist, Salako Abdulsalam (30), a Pastor, James Idagu (56), Sarumi
Abubakar, Ismaeel Salami (49), Akinola Oghuan (34) and Sunday Okeke
(33).
The suspects were
arrested in Lagos, Oyo and Kwara States, with several Automated Teller
Machine (ATM) cards belonging to unsuspecting Nigerians, whose accounts
were used to divert money belonging to those they fleeced.
According to the
police, the suspects belonged to a syndicate that specialised in
defrauding bank customers, who do not do Internet banking.
It was gathered that
while the bankers supplied the details of customers with funded
accounts to the gang, the MTN workers ensured that the victims’ mobile
numbers, as well as those of people they had their ATMs were swapped for
the duration of the crime.
According to Audu,
blocking the numbers enabled the syndicate to fleece their victims,
diverted the money into accounts they had ATM cards/pin and hurriedly
withdrew them.
He said: “The suspects transferred the money siphoned
into about 40 other accounts with ATM in different banks. They carried
out their operations at weekends and public holidays to avoid being
detected by the bank monitoring mechanisms or the owners of targeted
funded accounts.
“The effort of the
police team eventually paid off when the same group was holding their
final meeting at Domino Pizza eatery along Bode Thomas Street, Surulere,
on plan to unleash another monumental fraud on unsuspecting customers.
“Their plan was to
defraud another new generation bank between May 26 and 29. Detectives
stormed the venue during which one of the major kingpin claimed to be
Alhaji Ismaeel Salami and four members of the syndicate were arrested.”