Four Members Of Fraud Syndicate Arrested In Ogun State
Four members of a fraud syndicate, who defrauded a 26-year-old lady, Imoleayo Ashade, of the sum of over N1.3 million in Ijebu-Ode area after allegedly hypnotising her have been arrested by men of the Ogun State Police Command.
A box containing fake international currencies which the suspects were using to deceive their unsuspecting victims in their currency washing technology was also recovered by the police
The suspects were allegedly arrested on Tuesday during a raid on their hideout in a forest at Ijagun area of Ijebu-Ode where their shrine was located with assistance from members of the Oodua People’s Congress (OPC) and the local vigilante group.
The suspects, Salau Taiwo, Ifakunle Adeyemi, Tajudeen Jimoh and Adebayo Akeem, were also said to be engaging in international currencies washing which include Pound Sterling, US Dollars and European Euro in addition to swindling their victims.
Commissioner of Police Edward Ajogun, who conducted journalists round the scene of the crime during an on-the-spot assessment of the shrine, said that the suspects were arrested after their victim, Ashade had lodged a complaint at the Awa-Ijebu division of the police.
The Commissioner of Police explained that the victim was sometimes in December 2020 accosted by two members of the syndicate, who “appealed to her for assistance because they were stranded and had nowhere to stay for the night.”
Ajogun further explained that after successfully hypnotising and establishing friendship with the lady, the suspects later lured her into their hideout where they made her to swear to an oath of secrecy before duping her to the tune of about N1,310,000.
Speaking with journalists at the shrine, Ashade, a Business Administration graduate and awaiting National Youths Service Corps mobilization from the Adeniran Ogunsanya Polytechnic, Ijebu-Igbo, headquarters of Ijebu North Local Government, said the suspects lured her to believing that they could assist her with charms to boost her petty trading.
While assuring that the suspects would be charged to court after investigation had been concluded, the police chief, Ajogun, reiterated that the state would not be a conducive place to carry out any form of criminal enterprise under whatever guise.
Items recovered from the shrine include a box containing various denominations of fake foreign currencies, assorted charms and the sum of N1,310,000 which they allegedly collected from the victim fraudulently, while immoveable effigies were also spotted at various locations within the shrine.
