Posted by By Oluwatoyosi Ogunseye on
A young man who allegedly duped his girlfriend and forged his academic credentials, has become a guest of the police in Lagos.
A young man who allegedly duped his girlfriend and forged his academic credentials, has become a guest of the police in Lagos.
Tunde Oladayo was arrested after detectives at the State Criminal Investigations Department (SCID), Panti, Yaba, got a complaint from his girlfriend that he had swindled her of thousands of naira and deceived her while the relationship lasted.
Speaking with Daily Sun, Oladayo, 32, said that though he lied to his girlfriend about his academic qualifications, he did not dupe her.
He said: " I met Kemi in July when I was coming back from a job interview. We got talking and exchanged phone numbers.
She called me the day after we met and invited me to her house. I paid her a visit three days after she called me. I realised that she was living alone. She then told me that she met a pastor who had prophesised that I was her husband. She went as far as saying that the pastor had even given her my name.
"When she told me that she was an accountant, I had no choice but to tell her that I was a graduate of Computer Science so as not to feel inferior. I collected N7, 000 and N2, 000 from her on two different occasions. The funny thing is that I even spent some of the money on her. Suddenly, she started asking me to marry her when we had barely known each other, though I was sleeping in her house regularly. I told her to take it easy because it was too early. She even went to meet my mum telling her that we were going to get married soon. My mum expressed her reservations and advised her to be patient. After many deliberations, we fixed the wedding for December. We had gone as far as getting a hall."
Oladayo developed cold feet after he went to his girlfriend's church with her. He said: "As soon as I entered the church, the pastor called out my name. I suspected foul play because I had never set my eyes on the pastor. It then occurred to me that Kemi could have been telling the pastor everything about me. I later realised that she and her pastor wanted to trap me into the marriage.
Then I told myself that I had to tread carefully. She later discovered that I was not a graduate after she went to the address of the office I had given her. The address I gave her actually belonged to the place I had gone for an interview on the day she met me. On getting there, they told her that I never worked there. She got home and picked a quarrel with me. She brought out the bag where I kept my certificates and discovered they were fake. I woke her up at midnight and begged her. She told me that I was forgiven. But to my chagrin, I was picked up by policemen a few days after and I was told that it was my girlfriend that reported me."
Explaining on how he got the fake certificates, Oladayo claimed that he was formerly an undergraduate of the University of Lagos (UNILAG). He said: "I was actually reading Computer Science at UNILAG but I had some problems and had to drop out. I went for a computer programme to polish myself. It was one Mr. Rotimi that brought the idea that I should forge the certificates. I gave him N10, 000 and he produced it."
When Daily Sun tried to get Kemi's side of the story, she screamed on the reporter, "I don't want to talk to you. If I see my story in your paper, I would deal with you."