Posted by By MURPHY GANAGANA, Abuja on
Two alleged fraudsters caught recently in possession of over $1 billion fake US dollar notes in Abuja were among 32 suspects paraded Wednesday, at the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Police Command headquarters.
Two alleged fraudsters caught recently in possession of over $1 billion fake US dollar notes in Abuja were among 32 suspects paraded Wednesday, at the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Police Command headquarters.
The suspected fraudsters, identified as Ademola Abiola and Abdulwahab Abiola, were nabbed by anti-fraud detectives of the FCT Criminal Investigation Department (CID) while attempting to dupe one Alhaji Buhari of the sum of N120,000.
At the parade of 32 suspects and several recovered property , including 17 vehicles and 11 motorcycles, to showcase the command's exploits in the past two weeks, FCT Police Commissioner, Mr. Lawrence Alobi, said Ademola and Abdulwahab had approached Buhari claiming to have the sum of 1.5million US dollars which they wanted him to keep for them.
Luck, however, ran out on the duo as they requested the sum of N120,000 from their victim, which they claimed would be used to clear the money from Customs authorities in Lagos. It was at the point of collecting the money from Alhaji Buhari who, unknown to them, had earlier alerted the police, that they were arrested at the Nicon Hilton junction in Abuja.
Alobi said 25 packets of fake US dollars in 100 notes, two pieces of $50 notes, one bottle containing liquid substance, an "instruction card", cash box, and other items, were recovered from the men.
Also paraded were two fake Air Force officers whose names were given as Henry Ogah and Prince Ushie Martins as well as Ifeanyi Okechukwu, the alleged leader of a notorious advance fee fraud syndicate from whom a box containing an unspecified quantity of fake US dollars, was also recovered.
Items recovered from other suspects held for various offences ranging from armed robbery and vandalization of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) petroleum product pipelines, include 11 motorcycles, nine firearms, 21 live cartridges, 22 jerry-cans filled with petrol, master keys, cutlasses, and other dangerous weapons.