How Osun Speaker, Timothy Owoeye, was duped of N38m by fraudsters – Witness

A witness yesterday gave an account of how Osun State House of
Assembly Speaker Timothy Owoeye was duped of N38 million by
fraudsters.

The witness, Police Sergeant Adetunji Adejare, gave the account
at a Federal High Court sitting in Osogbo, the state capital.

Adejare told the court that eight accused persons implicated in
the matter – Kazeem Agbabiaka, AbdulRasheed Ojonla, Oyebode Femi,
Babatunde Oluajo, Adebiyi Kehinde, Oyebamiji Oyeniyi, Ismaila Azeez
and Awodunmola Kehinde – were arrested with a telephone
tracker.

The witness further testified that the investigation took the
police to Imesi-Ile in Ekiti State, as well as Lagos and Abuja, the
nation’s capital.

Adejare, who works in the State Intelligent Bureau of the police
command, said the investigative team were led to the shrine of one
of the defendants at Arubiidi, Ile-Ife and Olojabala via Osunjela,
where the complainant was subjected to “inhuman treatment”.

The policeman told the court that the defendants explained the
sharing formula of the ransom in their confessional statements.

He said: “The complainant submitted a petition bordering on
advanced fee fraud (419), conspiracy and threat to life to the Osun
State Police Command on July 10, last year. We started
investigation with tracking of the phone number of the first,
second, third and fifth defendants.

“We went to Oke-Imesi Ekiti, where the first defendant was
arrested. He later led us to Ado-Ekiti, where the second respondent
was arrested. We proceeded to Lagos State for the arrest of the
third respondent, who had travelled to Abuja by flight. The
Intelligent Response Team in Abuja eventually arrested him with a
tracker.

“The first defendant claimed to have bought a Toyota Highlander
Jeep and the second defendant confessed to have used his own share
to purchase the same type of Jeep but had not been delivered to
him.”

The police sergeant said Bamidele Tosin, who was said to be a
motor dealer, was arrested through the help of the Director of AMK
Motors in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital.

He added: “The motor dealer confessed that the fourth defendant,
Babatunde Oluajo, paid him in US dollars for the two jeeps of the
first and second defendants.”

The witness explained how the investigative team recovered
dollar and naira, unregistered Toyota Highlander Jeep,
single-barrelled gun, cartridges and other items in the home of the
first, second, third and fourth defendants.

He added that the sixth defendant was arrested for his role in
the threat to life of the complainant and the sending of his nude
video to police Sergeant Arawole Jimoh, who volunteered a statement
that led to the arrest of the seventh and eighth defendants who had
been using the video to extort money from friends and associates of
the complainant.

But attempt by the prosecution counsel, Moses Faremi, to tender
the statements of the defendants was opposed by counsel tot eh
accused persons.

Messrs Kazeem Badmus, J. P. Jones, O. U. Yusuf and Chief A.
Olodo, said the statements were signed by their clients under
duress.

The court adjourned the matter till July 1 for
trial-within-trial.

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