Posted by By OLUWATOYOSI OGUNSEYE on
A woman, who allegedly duped her friend of over N1million, has been declared wanted by the police.
A woman, who allegedly duped her friend of over N1million, has been declared wanted by the police.
Miss Odigie allegedly obtained the money from Joy Usomon under the pretext of obtaining a Switzerland Visa for her.
Usomon, who was desperate to travel to meet her husband and daughter, did not hesitate to empty her account and sold her property in a quest to join her family.
She, however, got a rude shock when Odigie allegedly called her on the day she was supposed to travel, informing her that she had been defrauded. Usomon said: "After giving her large sums of money on several occasions, Odigie came to meet me on August 7 in Benin where I reside, asking me to come to Lagos the next day because she had bought a ticket. She went as far as telling me to make a new hairstyle, particularly braids because it would last longer in cold weather.
She also claimed that she would be travelling to Switzerland with me for a conference. Excited, I made the new hairstyle and headed for Lagos the following day. During her visit to me in Benin, she collected 1,300 euros which I wanted to take to Switzerland. Odigie claimed that Lagos was too dangerous and that area boys could collect the money from me. I promptly gave it to her and she kept it in her bra.
On getting to Lagos, she came with her brother and lodged me in a hotel at Egbeda, promising to take me to the airport in a few hours. After waiting for so long, I called to remind her that we were going to be late for the flight. Instead, she told me to find my way back to Benin because I had just been duped."
Usomon has, however, been stranded in Lagos since she heard the news. She said: "I have lived all my life in Benin. I don't know anywhere in Lagos. Even if I have some money, I can't go back to Benin because of shame. My friends organised a party for me when I was leaving.
Infact, my mother-in-law thinks I'm in Switzerland. If I dare go back to Benin, she would kill me because she would think that I wasted her son's money."
Narrating how she met Odigie, Usomon said her husband's friend introduced the wanted woman to her. She said: "I have been married to my husband for almost 12 years but we have not stayed together for one month. I got tired of waiting for him and offered to join him. My husband, introduced me to Odigie on phone, saying she could help me. I wanted to go to Holland because my husband is in Switzerland. Odogie, however, said she could not get Holland visa but could help me with a Switzerland visa and a transit visa. I gave her a deposit of N150,000 and my passport in March.
In July, she called to say that my visa was ready. I gave my car to one Reverend Adebiyi, my husband's friend to sell for me because Odigie said she needed more money." Adebiyi sent N540,000 through one Blessing Okoye's account to Odigie. Okoye claimed her passbook had been stolen and gave us Odigie's account number. I have never met Odigie before in my life.
Adebiyi paid in the money on July 23 and I later found out that Odigie withdrew the money the next day. Three weeks ago, she said she needed money for my ticket, she went to Ibadan to collect N130,000 from Adebiyi which was part of the proceeds from the sale of the car. She came to Benin on August 7 and collected my 1,300 euros, claiming that Lagos is too dangerous," she said.
Usomon had, however, taken her matter to the State Criminal Investigations Department (SCID), Panti, asking for justice. Detectives at the anti-fraud section where the matter is being handled, disclosed that they had arrested two suspects in connection with the matter.
One of them said: "We have been calling the suspect on phone but she had refused to come. She told us that she was never going to honour our invitation and that we might as well go ahead to arrest her parents as it would yield no result because we have no right to detain them for over 24 hours.
The suspects we have in our net are also claiming that they don't know Okoye's whereabouts though information reaching us is that they are harbouring her," he said.
There is, however, a new twist to the matter as the monitoring unit at the police headquarters, Ikeja demanded a transfer of the case because Okoye had the written a petition against the complainant, Usomon.
Usomon said: "This is unfair. After duping me, she wants to use the police at the monitoring unit to scuttle investigations."
When contacted on phone, Odigie said: "I don't know the woman you are talking about, I did not dupe anybody. The case is that of human trafficking at the monitoring unit. Go there for any information you want."
The officer in charge of the monitoring unit, Mr. Tunde Adagunduro, however, said that his office would not pervert justice. He said: "If we find Odigie wanting after our investigations,we would send the case back to Panti. Nobody can use us to discharge any case."