Posted by By Juliana Francis on
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has held five suspected fraudsters who were trying to sell for N11 million a parcel of land which belongs to someone staying abroad.
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has held five suspected fraudsters who were trying to sell for N11 million a parcel of land which belongs to someone staying abroad.
The fraudsters, one of them a woman, were arrested when the man who wanted to buy the parcel of land in Magodo area of Shangisha, Ketu, took extra pains to pay a visit to the Ministry of Land and Housing.
There he learnt that the Certificate of Occupancy he had in his possession was the photocopy of the one stolen from one of the files. Officials also made the victim, identified as Dipo Oyedeji, know that the parcel of land does not belong to Iyabo Olayinka, who had been standing as the widow of the owner.
The leader of the fraudsters was identified as Bayo Olugbenga, who claimed to be a lawyer. His job was to convince Oyedeji that he was the legal man that would prepare the documents of the land for sale. Boye Osindein, who claimed to be an estate agent, was the one that got Oyedeji interested in the property. Kudi Fagbemi, who changed her name to Iyabo Olayinka allegedly convinced Oyedeji that the land belonged to her late husband. She also told him that before the man's death, he gave her power of attorney and all the documents to the land.
She further told EFCC that the men promised her N400,000 to lie and get Oyedeji to play ball. The financier of the gang was identified as Anthony Olatunji. Also in EFCC net is one Peter Akpan who assisted the gang in forging some of the fake documents.
Oyedeji had already parted with N4 million before he discovered he was dealing with con men and woman.
EFCC operatives have since learnt that the gang had used the land in question to defraud a lot of people.
A detective said: "We learnt that the suspects met in Bayo's chambers, where the documents were forged. He also forges other documents like deeds of assignment between Iyabo Olayinka and Ade Adebanjo. Lagos State plot allocation dated December 20, 1991, Lagos State Certificate of Occupancy, power of Attorney and others."
Presented with all the above documents, Oyedeji fell like a pack of cards. He paid them advance fee of N4 million with an agreement to later pay a balance of N7 million.
Another officer said: "They agreed to hand over the documents to him after he had brought the N7 million. He later went to the Ministry to ascertain the genuineness of the Certificate of Occupancy, which he had a copy of. There they told him it was stolen from a government file.
They also told him that the owner of the land was alive but based overseas. He wrote to us. We advised him to inform the fraudsters to come for the balance of N7 million. Detectives were informed of the venue, day and time."
On the day, Bayo and Kudi came to collect the money, armed with the fake documents. Oyedeji handed two cheques, each with N3.5 million to Kudi. The fraudsters were, however, shocked to their bone marrow when EFCC men appeared from nowhere and held them as they tried to walk away from Oyedeji. The duo were made to lead the law officers to the whereabouts of the others.
Investigators said they had discovered that Bayo was not a real lawyer. It has also been learnt that the fraudsters knew the real owner of the parcel of land and also that he was not in town. Moreover, the fraudsters used the Certificate of Occupancy stolen from the government file to create the fake one, which they used to fool Oyedeji.