The Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC), Sokoto Zonal Office in collaboration with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), recorded a major breakthrough with the arrest on August 29, 2019 of one Emmanuel Adedeji Oluwatosin, who is on the wanted list of the FBI.
The Sokoto Zonal Head, Abdullahi Lawal, who paraded the suspect in Sokoto yesterday, explained that the suspect was arrested in Kaduna.
Items recovered from the residence include two cars; Mercedes Benz E550; Mercedes Benz C450; an iPhone, laptops; modem and SIM cards
Lawal in a statement issued by the commission last night, added that the suspect and his accomplices both in Nigeria and overseas, acquired retirement account information (RAI) and personally identifiable information (PII) of multiple persons which they fraudulently used to wire funds into newly created business bank accounts tied to the fraudulently created business.
The proceeds were then converted into cryptocurrency. He said the preliminary investigation had so far revealed that about N 1, 437, 889, 157.15 passed through the suspect’s accounts.
The commission also traced the sum of N70, 000,000.00 he invested somewhere. Efforts are on to recover the money.
In a related development, Lawal said the commission arrested a wanted suspect, Muzakkir Muhammad, through a sister agency, in connection with an alleged case of obtaining money under false pretenses and production of fake currencies.
He said the suspect was reported by one of his victims, Abdullahi Ibrahim after he had defrauded another victim, Samaila Sani, a Bureau de Change operator to the tune of $33,850.
“Meanwhile, the first complainant, Ibrahim alleged that Muzakkri Muhammad collected the sum of N2, 350,000 from him on the pretext of producing the $100,000 for him, which he has neither produced nor refunded the Naira equivalent given to him,” the statement said.
It said a search was conducted in his house and several incriminating items which the suspect used in luring and defrauding his victims were recovered.
“His method is to make his victims believe that he possesses some form of supernatural abilities to communicate with spirits, while in the actual sense, they are mere tricks which he uses to deprive them of their hard earnings.”
Also paraded are four Sokoto local government officials who defrauded civil servants on the payroll of State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB) by deducting irregular amount of monies from their salaries since 2013.
The suspects are: Ishaka Abdullahi (Education Secretary), Abdullahi Idris (Deputy Education Secretary), Abdullahi Dadi (Cashier), and Idris Wamabai (Accountant).
The suspects would soon be charged to court, a statement by EFCC said.
Samson Oyedeyi
