Lagos State Police Commissioner, Imohimi Edgal
The Police in Lagos has smashed an organised crime ring through
which Nigerians buying phones on the internet were being robbed on a
daily basis.
Thirty-five-year-old Alade Olalekan and Olumide Oluwole, 31,
contrived a means of returning fake money to those who they lure to the
Computer Village in Ikeja, Lagos, to make payment for iPhones advertised
on Jiji.
According to the suspects, more victims fall into the trap at the
end of every month when workers had just received salaries. Lagos State
Police Commissioner, Imohimi Edgal, while parading the suspects on
Thursday, told reporters how his men smashed the syndicate.
Edgal said in a statement: “On Monday October 30, 2017 at about
15:00hrs through the Trust-Built Community Police & Safety
Partnership, intelligence report was received from a concerned citizen
who had previously been defrauded.
“The victim, who was defrauded through a phone contact number
08081273170 gotten online at www.jiji.ng website after purchasing an
iPhone6 (64gb) for the sum of N70,000 and was to make a physical payment
before receiving the product, was lured to make the payment to one of
the suspects at Awolowo way around computer village, Ikeja.
“After the victim had made the payment, she was manipulated to
believe that task force officials were after them. In that confused
state, the cash she handed over to suspected fraudsters was later
exchanged with neatly cut-to-size papers covered with three genuine
N1000 notes presented as the complete money. It was hurriedly refunded
to her. On further confirmation of the money, it was discovered to be a
scam of ordinary paper notes.
“The victim reported to the police and gave full information
which led to the tracking of suspected online fraud syndicate by Lagos
police personnel of the SIB who staged a covert operation on the 31st of
October 2014 with another would-be victim.
“This led to the arrest of their kingpin and leader of the
gang, Alade Olalekan (m) age 35 years, and Olumide Oluwole (m) age 31
years. Upon arrest, police recovered a bundle of neatly cut-to-size
paper wrapped with N1000 notes in their possession.
“The suspects have confessed to the crime and are helping with the progress of identifying other members of the gang at large.”
One of the suspects, Oluwole, told reporters that they usually collect phones from dealers who want us to scout for buyers.
Olalekan said, “We started by buying China phones and passing
it as original. We buy the China phones for N17, 000 and we’ll hold it
like original and sell at high price. Most people don’t know the
difference.
“After many people have reported us, government started paying
attention and the market chairman banned hawking. Then, things became
tough because they were just packing everybody. So, we started this
online method that has been on at the Computer Village.”
Expressing faith in what he described as the new partnership with
members of the public and their continuous support to the police, Edgal
said that the police would perform better when members of the public
give useful information to aid investigation and arrest of suspects
committing crime in the state.
He said that the suspects would be charged to court, as he urged
Lagosians to be more vigilant and security conscious at all times in
order not to fall victim to fraudulent and criminal activities.
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