The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, Ibadan Zonal Office recently arrested Osemwingie Ede Joseph, Idede Stanley and Oseyomwanbor Marvelous for offences bordering on stealing and obtaining money under false pretence running to the tune of over N120,000,000.00 (One Hundred and Twenty Million Naira).

The suspects, Ede (59), Stanley (20) and Marvelous (19) were arrested respectively following a petition received by the commission from a complainant (name withheld) , who alleged that sometimes in October 2016, he made payment for a trip in one of the Nigerian Airlines (name withheld) via their website for himself and three of his colleagues from Lagos to Port Harcourt. Whilst trying to pay, he had difficulty with the platform and decided to call the contact Number on the website.

According to the petition, the fellow who attended to him via the call instructed him to proceed to ATM and effect a transfer which he did immediately and transferred the sum N120,000.00 (One Hundred and Twenty Thousand Naira Only) to an account allegedly belonging to one Oghenetejiri Stanley Idede. After payment, all efforts to get his payment approved seemed abortive. It was at this point that he realised that he had been duped, hence his complaint to the EFCC.

Preliminary investigation by the operatives of the Commission revealed that one Success Osemwingie who was the primary suspect alongside his cohorts; Idede Stanley and Oseyomwanbor Marvelous were the syndicate behind the fake transaction.

However, investigations further revealed that there are two others: Francis Otagogo Ojemiri and Uhunmwangho Aisosa Charles, who are still at large. The fraudsters, including those at large, operated over Fifty accounts in different banks with which they defrauded unsuspecting victims to the tune of over N120,000,000.00 (One Hundred and Twenty Million Naira).

These fraudsters allegedly hosted cloned websites of Airlines and other online services providing organisations, to fleece unsuspecting members of the public of their hard-earned money. Members of the public are warned through this exposure to exercise more caution while patronising online business platforms.

The suspects will be charged to court as soon as investigations are concluded.

Politicsngr