A love scam suspect Chukwuebuka Kasi Obiaku has been remanded in police custody by a Federal High Court in Lagos on Thursday pending hearing of his bail application on September 10.

Justice Nicholas Oweibo made the order following Obiaku’s arraignment for allegedly defrauding an American woman, Mary English, of $46,400,000.

Obiaku, 34, pleaded not guilty to the charge.

According to Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Nosa Watson, the defendant and others now at large, in February, 2019, lured English to Nigeria from her United States of America (USA) abode with promises of love.

He told the court that upon the victim’s arrival, the defendant and others fraudulently obtained her master cards and withdrew from her accounts $18,400 between February and July 2019, and another $28,000 between August 2019 and May 2020.

Last July, police spokesman Frank Mbah alleged that Obiaku met English on Facebook and invited her to fly over from Washington, DC, to Lagos under the “pretext of love and marriage”.