Operatives of the Kaduna Zonal Office of the Economic and
Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) in Kaduna, have arrested six
fraudsters who allegedly specialize in defrauding innocent
Nigerians by using bank details obtained through sim swaps and
Automated Teller Machines (ATM).
The suspects include Urulo Ikenna Henry, an Inspector with the
Enugu Command of Nigerian Correctional Service. Others are Ugonna
Nelson Owete, Ugonna Samuel Okafor Obinna, Chigbo Paschal
Chidiebere, Oha Chukwujekwu Kingsley, Ahamefula Francis
Izuchukwu
The suspects according to a statement by Head, Public Affairs
EFCC, Kaduna Zonal Office, Zainab Sani Ahmed, were arrested in
separate operations, sequel to a petition by a customer of Access
Bank, alleging that monies were illegally transferred from his
account without his authorisation.
The petitioner according to the statement, sometime in February,
2019, he opened an account with Diamond Bank (now Access Bank)
which he funded to the tune of N5m and instructed the bank to open
a fixed deposit account, with the sum of N1m from the earlier
account, as opening balance.
“The complainant said he was receiving regular alerts until the
end of March, 2019 when the alerts stopped coming, prompting him to
demand his statement of account from the bank. Upon receipt of his
bank statement, he discovered to his chagrin that the sum of two
million nine hundred and eleven thousand four hundred and eighty
naira (N2,911,480m) had fraudulently been transferred to several
accounts between April 5 -9, 2019 without his authorisation.
“Upon the receipt of the petition, the zonal office of the
Commission immediately swung into action and traced some of the
funds to three of the suspects, Samuel Okafor Obinna – N1,500.000;
Chigbo Paschal Chidiebere -N210,000 and Oha Chukwujekwu Kingsley
N300 000. All three were promptly arrested.
“Further investigation revealed that Ikenna Henry, Nelson Owete
(a known criminal who was earlier arrested and paraded by the Enugu
State Police Command for crimes bordering on conspiracy and armed
robbery) and Ahamefula Francis Izuchukwu were equally complicit in
the fraud.
“They were arrested. Upon arrest, items recovered from Urulo
Ikenna Henry included a Toyota Camry, documents of 2 plots of land,
2 Nigeria Housing Fund Passbook (one belonging to him and the other
bearing Ani Wilfred Ochechukwu), 17 ATM cards of different banks
bearing different names, 2 Nigerian Correctional Service Identity
Cards, 2 smart phones and 2 Nokia phones, 1 NHIS card, 1 voter
card, 26 Starter Packs and 15 SIM cards of various networks.” EFCC
said.
The statement revealed further that, two sachets of Cannabis
Sativa, 8 ATM cards bearing different names and banks, 6 Starter
Packs, and 4 SIM cards of various networks, One empty ECOWAS
Passport, 1 NDA dependant ID card and a voter card were also
recovered from Francis Izuchukwu.
The antigraft agency said, the suspects will soon be charged to
court as soon as investigations are concluded.
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