The police in Lagos on Tuesday said they have apprehended a seven-man fraud syndicate with base in Lagos as well as bank insiders that help them perpetrate frauds.
The Commissioner of Police in the state, Hakeem Odumosu, during a press briefing, said the prompt arrest of members of the syndicate including the team lead enabled the police to foil multi-million naira fraud by the team which was near completion.
The arrest, which was made last week by the decoy team of Rapid Response Squad (RRS), voided a N3 million, N25 million and $220,000 fraudulent transactions by the team.
“The arrest by the Decoy Team of RRS a few days ago, was based on the intelligence it received on the activities of a fraud syndicate based in Lagos and led by one Osita Nwafor, alias Ossy.
“Nwafor, 45 years old, was picked up in the gang’s hideout by the Decoy Team after a technical analysis of the details of the gang and its activities. His arrest facilitated the arrest of six other members of the gang in different parts of the metropolis,” the police said.
Members of the syndicate arrested are; Nwogu Joseph Chika, Anthony Odama, Ikechukwu Nkem, James Okonkwo, Adedio Paulinus and Ogundepo Olufemi. The suspects are 36, 43, 32, 51, 29, and 51 years old respectively.
According to police investigations, the team works with bank insiders – locally and internationally – who agree on a percentage. “The fraudsters scout for obituaries of well to do members of the public, use bank insiders to determine the deceased account balance, clone their SIM cards for online transfer,” the police said.
Mr Odumosu said investigations revealed that the gang members were recruited by Mr Nwafor sometime in 2019 and they work independently and collectively. While one of the bank insiders was arrested in Lagos, another bank insider located in Benin is on the run after suspecting that the syndicate has been busted.
“According to Nwafor, ‘although I brought the team together, each and every member of the group has his own specialization in the group. We sourced for cases and each and every member of the gang has his own role on each of the cases.
“Once I have done my own part of the deal (sourcing for SIMs and accounts numbers through which the group perpetrates its fraud), I push it to whoever among the members has to play the next role and that is how we treat our cases. Apart from this, each member of the gang also has his own splinter group. Whenever they have personal jobs, they also handle on their own”, he added.
The suspects confirmed to investigators that they also work with bank insiders locally and internationally and sourced for foreign and local accounts for money lodgements.
The team leader also told the police that Mr Nwogu, a member of the syndicate was working on the transfer of $220,000 fresh transaction from a foreign bank, while Femi Ogundepo, another member was on a fraudulent transaction of N25 million from an old generation bank with insider connivance.
James Okonkwo, a close ally of Mr Nwafor, the gang coordinator, allegedly cornered N8 million fraudulent proceed of the gang shortly before his arrest, which led to a serious dispute between the two, the police said.
Mr Odumosu said all the suspects will be charged to court.
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