The Nation Newspaper

Category: Crime Diary

  • Cement merchant

    Cement merchant

    A businessman, Alhaji Jamiu Azees, has witnessed a reversal of fortune after he was allegedly defrauded of a sum of N700 million by suspected fraudsters who posed as spiritualists. The fraudsters allegedly collected the money from Azees’ eldest son, Kazeem Babatunde Aremu, under the false pretence of assisting him to overcome a spiritual attack, which turned out to be scam. Azees, 68, who is the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Jummy Azees Nigeria Limited, a major distributor of Dangote Cement in Ota, a suburb of Ogun, said a female member of the syndicate, Kemi Abimbola Rufai had registered with the firm as customer and was given credit facility by his eldest son, Kazeem, who is the Managing Director of his company.

    Their relationship became intimate so much so that Kazeem began to give her advice on how to improve sales and make more profit. Kemi, it was gathered, later told Kazeem that he was suffering from some spiritual attacks orchestrated by his family through which he was allegedly hypnotised and defrauded of the huge sum of money belonging to the company. The syndicate allegedly took the young businessman to shrines where they hypnotised him and collected money. Kazeem, 35, said: “Sometimes in or about July, 2014, one Kemi Abimbola Rufai became a registered customer to the company and was given credit facility in form of two truck-load of Dangote Cement worth N1. 98 million, but she failed to pay as promised.”

    Kazeem noted that sometime in December 2015, the said Kemi invited him for an important discussion at Caaso Bus Stop, Alagbado area of Lagos state, during which she explained that a certain Musilm cleric she met at Oju Ore area of Ogun State, advised him to come for spiritual cleansing to free him free from his father’s ‘diabolical grip’. According to him, following Kemi’s pressure he underwent a ritual cleansing at a river in Meiran area of Lagos State. ‘’After the spiritual cleansing, the Alfa told me to embark on a seclusion journey to an unknown destination before I could completely win the spiritual battle to release me from the firm grip of my father over his wealth and the entire spiritual process with the Alfa has cost me a sum of N45 million. ”

    The Alfa then advised me to stay back so that Kemi could undergo the seclusion for me. On the eight day of the spiritual seclusion, I was in Lagos when I received a call from Alfa and Kemi, that the money I gave to them for rituals cleansing has miraculously and magically turned to Dollars and Euros. Continuing, he said: “So, I was asked to come to Oshogbo, Osun State, to collect the hard currencies; when I realized that Kemi had been in Oshogbo all the while for  the seclusion, I had to embark on a journey to Oshogbo when Alfa warned that it would be spiritually dangerous for me if I failed to collect the hard currencies myself. On getting to Oshogbo, the said Alfa took me to a hotel where Kemi was lodged. She narrated to me how she was traumatized in the spiritual world, in her effort to assist me to fight the curse, but she assured me that all was well thereafter.

    “That night, Kemi and the said Alfa accompanied me to Osun Oshogbo river in Osun State, where I met one short old man and his group fully dressed in white regalia chanting some strange ‘Quran verses’. The short old man pointed at a black box with Quranic inscriptions, claiming that the box contained hard currency, which I can only have access to upon the payment of a sum of $1 m. The black box covered with white cloth was released to me to test the efficacy of the rituals in the hotel room, where I paid a sum of three million naira to the group, through my Zenith Bank account in Oshogbo.” Narrating further, he said, “The following day after I returned to Lagos, I began to source for a forex dealer agent to assist me to get a sum of one million dollars demanded by the syndicate.

    In the process, I took a sum of four hundred and seventy thousand dollars to Kemi’s house at Number 4 Harmony Estate, Aboru, a Lagos suburb, and while I was in her house, a member of the syndicate called ‘Osokoro’ called her to spread the dollars on the floor on the four corners of the room”. It happened that Kazeem paid a total sum of eight hundred and twenty thousand dollars ($820,000.00) to the syndicate to perform some rituals that could multiply the hard currencies in the box. It was when the scale fell off his eyes that the police arrested Kemi and other members of the syndicate. It was learnt that some of the suspects bribed their way out of police dragnet. The Nation gathered that some of the suspects have since been re-arrested by the operatives of the Inspector General of Police (IGP) Monitoring Unit, following a petition by Kazeem’s father.

    The suspects were identified as, Alfa Otukoko; Rasheed Gbadewale Alayande (a.k.a Achebe); Ogbenle Abiola SIna(a.K.a Oluwo Ikire); Olohunwa Alabi; Ibrahim Mojeed Olaifa (a.k.a Apanpa); Alhaji Fatai; Alfa Ikire; Alfa Kamoli; Kemi Abimbola Rufai; Serif Ademola; Osoroko; Omo Sheu; Femi Vincent Femi; Adeniji Daniel and others. Items recovered from the suspects include a Toyota Venza car; a KIA Cerato car; one Toyota Camry; a Lexus 350 car and one house purchased by Sherif Ademola through the proceed of crime. Some of the suspects including Rasheed Gbadewale Alayande (aka Achebe); Olohunwa Alabi and Sheriff Ademola were initially arraigned before an Igbosere Magistrate’s Court for kidnapping, obtaining money by false pretence, robbery, threat to life and stealing in the sum of N656, 140,000.00 from Kazeem. A police source said the leader of the syndicate, Otunba Buasri (a.k.a Akin Osa), and some members of his gang are now at large while effrots are being intensified by the police to arrest other fleeing members of the gang. They have since been arraigned before a state High Court sitting in Igbosere, Lagos and granted bail by the presiding judge, Justice C.N.Nwaka. The case has been adjourned till October 20, for hearing.

  • Police arrest man for allegedly beating wife to death over N10,000 allowance

    Police arrest man for allegedly beating wife to death over N10,000 allowance

    A man, Femi Adebowale, 40, has been arrested by operatives of Ogun Police Command, after he allegedly beat his wife , Kuburat Adebowale to death. The incident happened on July 17, 2017 at the suspect’s residence at 15 Campbell Street, Agbado in Ifo Local Government Area.

    The spokesman of Ogun State Police Command, Mr Abimbola Oyeyemi said Adebowale was arrested after a younger brother of the deceased, Shakiru Alao reported at Agbado Division that his sister was beaten to death by her husband over allegation of adultery. Oyeyemi, in a statement issued on Friday, said: ‘’Upon his complaint, the Divisional Police Officer(DPO) of Agbado , Sunday Omonijo led his men to the scene where the suspect was promptly arrested.

    In his statement, the suspect alleged that the deceased has been involving in act of infidelity for quite some time to the extent that she was dating their next door neighbor. He stated further that on the fateful day, the deceased asked him for money which she will spend on her younger brother’s naming ceremony of which he gave her the sum of #10,000 but the deceased insisted that the money was not enough. It was her adulterous practice that made him to refuse given her more money and which was the genesis of the fight that resulted to her death.

    The body of the deceased has been deposited at Ifo General Hospital mortuary for autopsy. ‘’Meanwhile the Commissioner of Police, CP Ahmed Iliyasu has ordered the case to be transferred to Homicide section of the State Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Department (SCIID) for further investigation and possible prosecution of the suspect. The CP warned that the Command will not tolerate any form of domestic violence, he also advised couples to desist from resulting to violence whenever they have disagreement in their home,’’ the statement added.

  • Save us from land grabbers, community begs FG

    COMMUNITY leaders in Ijere and Orimerunmu areas of Obafemi Owode Local Government area of Ogun State, have cried out over alleged invasion of the communities by suspected land grabbers. It was learnt that the communities had been subjected to constant attacks in the last six months. In a petition written by Odudu, Okuna & Co (legal Practitioners ) on behalf of the leaders of the community and Egunjobi/Osholewa Family entitled ”Threat to life, unlawful possession of fire arms, assault and illegal encroachment of our land,’’ dated July 13, 2017, the communities called for the intervention of the Federal Government through the Acting President, Prof Yemi Osinbajo.

    The petitioners urged the acting president to wade into an alleged persistent acts of criminality being perpetrated against the community by land speculators with the aid of unidentified policemen and a man identified simply as ‘Scorpion’. The petition reads: ‘’In 2001, members of Orunmakinde family filed an action against them(Egunjobi/Osholewa family) at a state High Court sitting in Abeokuta in suit No AB/221/2001 wherein they sought a declaration of the title of a land. In 2008, a judgment was given in favor of the plaintiff, the Orunmakinde family, without any reference or mention whatsoever of any other family as beneficiary of the dividends of the judgment.

    The Egunjobi Osholewa Family thereafter, appealed the judgment at the Court of Appeal sitting in Ibadan in suit no CA/IB/225/2010. However, on November 18 2016, their Lordships struck out the judgment of the High Court and affirmed the Egunjobi Osholewa Family’s ownership of the land. The judgment by the Appeal Court has not been appealed against by the Orunmakinde Family till today.

    The family noted that since the judgement was given by the Court of Appeal, its property has been forcibly taken over by some persons acting on behalf of another family that has no right to the property. ‘’We were forced to write a petition to the Inspector General of Police( IGP) who directed that all petitions emanating from all parties should be taken over and investigated by a special investigative panel headed by an Assistant Inspector General of Police(IGP) Ahmadu Ali (rtd).’’

    It was learnt that the land speculators did not comply with the directive of the Special Investigative Panel (SIP), and instead resorted to self-help writing several misleading petitions to government agencies in Ogun State and Abuja. The petitioners appealed to the Acting President to use his good office to investigate the complaint thoroughly and ‘’ensure that justice is served because criminal acts are still ongoing as people are disposessed of their property on a daily basis at gunpoint thus making the community uninhabitable and unsafe.’’

  • Badoo: Police denies cultists attack in Ogun neighbourhood

    Badoo: Police denies cultists attack in Ogun neighbourhood

    THE Ogun State Police Command has denied the report of the killing of two lovers on Friday in the Ojodu Berger area by suspected Badoo cultists. The spokesman of the Command, Abimbola Oyeyemi, said the incident was a case of murder and not an attack by Badoo cultists as reported in a section of the media.

    The unnamed about-to-wed lovers were allegedly killed in the wee hours of Friday by unidentified persons in their apartment at a storey building on Hassan Abiodun in Ojodu Berger area of Ifo Local Government on Fridayin Ogun State. He said: ‘’ I don’t know why people should link a case like this to Badoo cultists? A case of murder was reported to the police and we are already investigating it.

    Don’t you know that some people can commit a It was learnt that the victims were smashed to death while they were in bed. The remains of the victims were evacuated from their blood-stained apartment by men of Ojodu Abiodun Division. It was gathered that their remains have been deposited at a morgue in a public hospital in Sagamu. Speaking with The Nation on Friday, Oyeyemi, an Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) said people should be cautious not to link homicide cases to cult-related killing.

    He said: ‘’ I don’t know why people should link a case like this to Badoo cultists? A case of murder was reported to the police and we are already investigating it. Don’t you know that some people can commit a heinous crime like this and try to make it look as if it was perpetrated by Badoo cultists? ‘’ We cannot categorically say that it is the Badoo gang that struck there. It is a case of murder and we have the capacity to unravel the mystery behind the killing and bring the masterminds to justice. So, simply put, it is case of murder and we have started investigating it to know those behind it.’’

  • Trader dies after drinking bottles of herbal gin

    A trader identified as Akpan Solomon has died after he took four bottles of a local herbal gin called ‘Agbara’. The deceased was said to have accompanied his friend, Chigozie Ozorigam to a hotel to relax. It was learnt that Solomon had earlier consumed two bottles of beer before he requested for bottles of the local gin.

    The incident happened around 6 p.m at Lagoon Hotel, Orile Iganmu Lagos in June. Akpan, it was gathered, became weak and collapsed few minutes after he consumed the drinks.

    The incident led to the arrest of his friend Chigozie and he was subsequently arraigned before an Ebute Meta Chief Magistrate’s Court for allegedly poisoning Akpan. Police Prosecutor, Kehinde Olatunji filed an application that the accused be remanded in prison custody pending legal advice from the office of Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP).

    The defence counsel, Spurgeon Ataene asked the court to make enquiry pursuant to Section 264 from the prosecution. In her ruling, the presiding magistrate, Mrs. Folarin Williams said there was no evidence in the prosecution file that indicted Chigozie as the one who committed the crime. She admitted the accused to bail in the sum of N500, 000 with two sureties in like sum. The case was adjourned till October 5 for DPP’s advice.

  • Fear as cultists

    A group of cultists have allegedly unleashed terror on residents of Pakuro area of Ofada in the Obafemi Owode Local Government in Ogun State Panic residents said the daredevil boys had stormed the community during the general elections held in 2015 and have refused to stop their reign of terror. A cross section of concerned residents who spoke with The Nation said the crisis heightened

  • Ogun police nab three men with human skulls

    OPERATIVES of Ogun State Police Command have arrested three men, Saibu Popoola; Aliu Ajiroba and Jimoh Ijiola, for allegedly being in possession of human skulls.

    The suspects were apprehended by Policemen attached to Ayetoro Division while on routine patrol.

    The three suspects with the human skulls

    The policemen were said to have accosted the duo of Saibu Popoola and Aliu Ajiroba on a Bajaj motorcycle along Idagba Olodo road with a bag which look suspicious.

    Police spokesman, Abimbola Oyeyemi, in a statement explained that ”a search was quickly conducted on them (suspects) and the two human skulls were discovered in the said bag. The duo were promptly arrested and taken to Ayetoro Police Station where they told the Police that the skulls were given to them by Jimoh Ijiola who lives in Erinpa area of the town.

    ”Upon the information, the Divisional Police Officer(DPO) of Ayetoro Division, Makinde Kayode, a Chief Superintendent of Police(CSP) led detectives to the resident of the suspect where he was also arrested. In his own statement, he denied being the person that gave them (the suspects) the skulls, but(that) they all got it from neighbouring Benin Republic and their intention was to use it for money rituals. Meanwhile, the Commissioner of Police, CP Ahmed Iliyasu has ordered that the case be transferred to State Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Department for further investigation and possible prosecution of the suspects.’’

  • Pastor arrested for defrauding church members

    Pastor arrested for defrauding church members

    THE General Overseer of the Sufficient Grace Church, Pastor Okechukwu Joseph, has been arrested by operatives of the State Intelligence Bureau (SIB), Lagos State Police Command, for defrauding members of his church huge sums of money. According to a police source, the Pastor allegedly approached some members of his church with the pretence that he needed money to repair his car among other projects with a promise to pay back as soon as possible as he was expecting money from undisclosed sources.

    The source further disclosed that once he collects any money from a victim he starts giving flimsy excuses until the victim gets adding that most of his victims are women who do daily contribution (ajo) business. However, his obtaining money by false pretence came to the fore after defrauding two women who do daily contribution business, huge sums of money. It was gathered that he had been making empty promises of paying back for about eight years. The source said: ‘’When one of the women he allegedly defrauded took the matter up by reporting him to the church elders and threatened to report him to police he quickly paid the woman the money he collected from her. Unfortunately he was not be able to pay the second woman identified as Miss Bridget Nwankwo, who took the matter to the police due to pressure from the people who did the daily contribution and were anxious to collect back their money totalling N308,000.

    ‘’When the Pastor was invited to SIB’s office in January 2017, and was asked to find a way of reconciling with the woman, Pastor Joseph did not honour the appointment. He instead jumped bail several times only to appear on Wednesday July 12, 2017 to continue with his flimsy excuses for fear of being tracked down by SIB operatives. We will charge him to court for obtaining money by false pretence and stealing. He is a serial fraudster,’’ the source added. Explaining his involvement in the offence the suspect Joseph said: “I am married with two children. I am from Okwe Oboro, Ikweanu local government area, Umuahia, Abia State. I am the General Overseer of my church, Sufficient Grace Church, based in Lagos. ‘’I know the complainant Miss Bridget Nwankwo as a member of my church. I had no misunderstanding with her. What really happened is that I collected N308,000 from her to do some reconstruction work in my church where we were before I relocated, due to circumstances beyond my control.

    ‘’Now we are somewhere in Oworonshoki area because the owner of the landt died and the place was sold off. I paid her N60,000 and another N40,000 totalling N100,000. I was not able to pay the remaining N208,000, because money was not coming to me as before. She later reported me to SIB that I did not pay her the balance of N208,000. When I was invited by the Police to have a talk with her on how to pay the remaining money, I told her that I would be paying her N20,000 every first Sunday of the month but she refused. The church I am pastoring is a growing church. If you look at my body physique you will think that I have money. I had problems and that was why I had no money to pay her. I had a very serious financial problem. He added: ‘’The boy living in my house, Chidi Eze was sick and died two months ago. He was operated in April 2017.

    I was in Benin and I came and he was taken home, to the East, Abia State but he died of complication. I was travelling to see the boy’s parents at their home town because they were not happy and they had been asking me about how their child died. Their tradition demands that you must bring something and I had been running around to see what I could do before police invited me. I know that it is eight years today. I was not running away. I have intention to pay the balance. The Police said they will charge me to court. I do not want them to charge me to court. I will be paying instalmentally. However, the complainant Miss Bridget Nwankwo said: ‘’My clients have been asking me for their money. It is eight years now and I cannot trust him again. He has caused me much pain and if I keep quiet my client will not believe me.’’

  • Two teachers get N1m bail for ‘raping’ seven schoolgirls

    TWO teachers of Nazareth Junior and Senior College, Ibawon, Epe, Lagos State, who allegedly defiled seven pupils of the school, were yesterday charged before Ogba Magistrates’ Court, Ikeja, Lagos. Oke Mustapha, 38, and Yisau Musibau, 39, were arraigned before Mrs M.B. Olajide on two counts of sexual assault, recklessness and negligent acts.

    According to the police, the victims were between 15 and 17 years old. The teachers were charged alongside a trado-medical nurse, Abimbola Adesanni, 42, who was accused of administering a “dangerous drug” on a female student (name withheld).

    The student was allegedly impregnated by one of the teachers. Prosecuting Sergeant Rachael Donny told the court that Mustapha, Musibau and others at large, committed the alleged offences between 2014 and 2016 at Ibowon. She alleged that they secretly subjected the girls to serial sexual harassment for two years. Donny said they conspired “to commit felony to wit: sexual assault by penetration, reckless and negligent acts.

    The offences, she added, were punishable under Section 411 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, Nigeria, 2015. Principal State Counsel from the Lagos State Office of the Public Defender (OPD), Jamiu Alapo, watched brief for the complainants. The defendants pleaded not guilty. In a bench ruling, Magistrate Olajide granted the bail application of defence counsel, Bright Idahosa.

    She admitted each defendant to bail in the sum of N1million with two sureties in the like sum. The sureties’ statements of accounts and residential addresses, the magistrate added, should be verified. They must also present evidence of three years’ tax clearance. The matter was adjourned till September 18. However, following the defendants’ failure to meet the bail conditions they were remanded in Kirikiri Prison.

  • Customs destroy N83m worth of frozen products

    THE Federal Operations Unit(FOU) Zone C, Owerri, has intercepted and destroyed about 4,118 cartons of poultry products worth N83, 389,500. The exercise was witnessed by other security agencies including the DSS, Police, National Security and Civil Defense Corps (NSCDC) and officials of the National Agency for Food Administration (NAFDAC).

    The Comptroller of Customs, Federal Operations Unit, (FOU) Zone C’ Owerri, Controller Amajam Bukar Alhaji, who supervised the destruction of the poultry products warned against the consumption of imported frozen chicken, adding that the chemicals used as preservatives could be harmful to health. Amajam, disclosed that it took the collaboration of the Army and NAFDAC to impound the truck. He said: “We virtually paid to get intelligence on the movement of the consignment after we learnt that they were loading the truck at Ore.

    We kept our surveillance until the truck entered into Owerri and when they noticed that they were being followed, they drove to the stadium, where they parked the truck and deflated the tires to make it impossible to drive it away. At that point we called the Army and Police for backup before we were able to impound the truck and brought it to our headquarters”. “Nigerians do not know the type of chemicals used for the preservation of the chicken. The chemicals are dangerous to health, so consuming the products is a serious health hazard that should be avoided.” In a related development FOU Zone C also impounded Contraband with a DPV of N261 million.

    Amajam while parading the seized items said: ‘’About 1591 used tires with Duty Paid Value of N14,378,400, 3889 bags of rice with duty Paid Value of N101,478,000, 380 cartons of soap with duty paid value of N10,093,009, 1x40ft container intercepted along Aba/Eleme containing assorted goods including 6600 pieces of sewing machine, 3080 sewing machine motor, 47 pieces of empty gas cylinder, 19 pieces of gas stove, 9900 packets of measuring tape, 1080 bundles of PVC package, 320 scissors amongst other items with a DPV of N111,572,300 and one Nissan Almera with DPV of 4,725,000.

    ‘’Other seizures that’s were still being investigated include, “a container of 1401 rolls of fabric with Duty Paid Value of N14,100,000, a 2016 Toyota Prado Jeep with Duty Paid Value of N25,658,201, 2013 Toyota Prado Jeep with Duty Paid Value of N17,349,647, 2011 Toyota Prado Jeep with Duty Paid Value of N74,250,000, 2010 Mercedes Benz G-Wagon Bullet Proof with Duty Paid Value of N74,250,000; 2008 Mercedes Benz G-Wagon with Duty Paid Value of N18,528,750 and 2016 Range Rover with duty paid value of N28,049,645.’’ The Customs boss, explained that the commodities seized contravened the law with some of the infractions bordering on false declarations and deliberate attempts to evade duty payment.