How suspected fraudster, Arinze, died seeking forgiveness

Posted by Juliana Francis

Mr Princewill Arinze Eze aka Senator Nwobodo, was a man many Nigerians will not forget in a hurry. Eze, from Imo State, was married and had five kids; four sons and a daughter. He often described himself as a businessman. Police described him as a ‘career suspected criminal.’

He had been arrested at least four times for different times, by different security agencies, including the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). But like a cat with nine lives, Eze had always managed to land back on his feet.

The last law enforcement agency to grab him, leading to his becoming a guest at the Maximum prison, was the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) Ikeja, Lagos State Police Command. He was arrested on February 26, 2015.

He was accused of many crimes, among which was wearing of EFCC reflective vests to rob, steal and dupe unsuspecting Nigerians.

His major targets were operators of Bureau De Change. Eze, 55, was arrested along with Amira Abdallahi (32), Daniel Okpara (30), Paul Irior (37), Bassey Williams Ekpenyoung (39) and Royal Nwabuike (32).

He was said to have been arrested several times for robbery, but he had a penchant for escaping convictions, earning him the nickname, ‘cat with nine lives.’

Police said: “The suspect goes about in a tinted car, fitted with a radio base, where police radio messages are intercepted. The car also has siren which blared whenever Eze was on the move.
He uses EFCC uniforms, handcuffs and guns to rob Bureau De Change operators in Abuja and Lagos State of foreign currencies.

“Recovered from the suspects are; Bryco 59 pistol with serial no. 930945 with six rounds of 5.56mm live ammunition, single barrel pistol cut to size with four live cartridges, and three Toyota Highlander jeeps. The first is ash colour, marked LSR11DB.

The second is maroon colour marked LSR 671DK, another maroon colour marked KTU 380DK. Police also recovered a Toyota Sienna 2012 model, marked JJJ424CQ, Toyota 4 Runner, marked KRD 449DG, one Toyota Camry Saloon car unregistered, N4 million cash and some foreign currencies.”

Eze was arrested after Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) Abba Kyari tracked him to his home at VGC Ajah. Chatting with journalists back then, Eze said: “I have been into this business for quite some time now.

I was arrested four years ago by SARS operatives and charged to court over similar issues. I have been arraigned in courts over seven times but since there wasn’t any prosecutor and paper to prosecute me on the cases, I was bailed and told to go.”

Eze had earlier been arrested in 2014 by the EFCC for fraud. On February 20, 2014, three gunmen in police uniform snatched Eze, from a prison warder at the Igbosere area of Lagos State, while being taken to court. Eze was charged to court by EFCC for obtaining $ 92,000 under false pretence.

After his arrest by SARS, before he was charged to court, he claimed that he paid EFCC and prison warders N10 million each, to snatch him on the way to the Igbosere court.

While in SARS custody, Eze said: “I’ll never come back to SARS office again in Jesus name!” And that is what exactly happened. Eze, who had been standing trial over alleged robbery and Tuesday kidnapping died in Maximum Prison last week.

He wouldn’t be going anywhere again. A source said: “He died of diabetes. His family is alleging poor medical treatment.

He died within three days after he took ill. The family went to prison, demanding to take his corpse for burial, but the prisons authorities refused. They said it belonged to government.

Before he died, he said that he regretted his action and that God should forgive him and his gang members who were still at large.

“He said his gang members should stop crime because it doesn’t pay.

He said everything he had, he had lost. He said that even if he came out from prison, he would be coming out with nothing. Then he died.”

According to the source, Eze’s trial had been going on at the Federal High Court, Ikoyi, Lagos.

In his last last appearance in court, Eze and one of his victims were said to have enacted a mild drama in the court. Eze had denied defrauding the victim and the victim, angry, laid a curse on him.

“The victim said let me see if you would use your legs to walk back to this court on the next hearing date if you didn’t defraud me,” said a source. It was also gathered that Eze changed lawyers at will, claiming that he could defend himself in court.

One of the lawyers he changed is Mr Deji Rowland. Recalling his encounter with Eze, Rowland said: “What happened was that he briefed us; we gave him our bill. He paid part of the bill. We didn’t know he had other cases in court.”

He said later Eze briefed them on his other cases and even though they were not conversant with them, they tried do their best. Rowland said they represented him, even though he didn’t pay for those cases.

Rowland said: “At a time, he just stood up and said he was capable of representing himself. He said it in the open court. I was even signaling to him to be mindful of what he was saying.

The judge said that if the defendant had disengaged us and could represent him, then that what should we do? We backed out; we pursued the first case until it got to Directorate of Public Prosecution (DPP). The DPP advice came; he had a case to answer in other matters.

That was how he started sending threat messages to me; he said that I should refund the money he paid us.”

According to the Nigerian Prisons Service spokesman, Francis Enobore, Eze died last week. He said: “He took ill and was taken to the prison’s hospital. When they discovered his situation was getting serious, they moved him to Naval Hospital in Ojo.

We maintain a very good working relationship with government hospitals. Whenever we discover an inmate is ill and our medical facility can’t cope, we move such inmates.

It was at the naval hospital that he gave up. The doctor there diagnosed diabetes mellitus type 2 and renal failure. These are serious ailments.”

Newtelegraphonline