Neighbour, others blackmail family, demand N5m
The Lagos State Police Command says criminals in the state have devised a new method of operating and making money without stress.
According to police authorities,
criminals now contact their victims on the telephones, threatening to
kill or kidnap them. The criminals then send a bank account number with
the instruction that their victims credit the account with a specified
amount of money to prevent being killed or kidnapped.
The police said Owolabi’s family was one of the victims to such operations.
A housemaid with the Owolabis, identified simply as Rebecca, had committed suicide in May.
Mrs. Abosede Owolabi, a mother of five,
said about a month later, specifically on June 6, 2013, she received a
telephone call from a stranger who told her that he would implicate her
if she did not pay N5m.
She said, “My housemaid, who is from
Benin Republic, hanged herself in her room in May and I reported the
matter to the Ikotun Police Division. Police did investigation and the
courts were also involved. After autopsy, it was determined that there
was no foul play and the case ended.Read on after the cut...
“On June 6, a strange man called me
saying that he had evidence that I killed Rebecca and told me that he
would inform the media if I did not pay him N5m. I told him to go ahead
since I had nothing to hide. He got angry and told me that he had been
paid by someone to kill me and my family but he would spare my life if I
paid the money.
“The caller seemed to know me well as he
mentioned the names of my family including the names of my children
living abroad. I negotiated with him after subsequent calls and he told
me he would accept N500, 000, So he sent me a First Bank account
number.”
The victim said she went to Ikotun Police Station to report the matter and the police told her to play along.
“I told the caller that I had paid the
money into his account even though I had not. He told me he had not
received the alert and he sent Zenith bank, Guaranty Trust Bank and UBA
account numbers asking me to pay into any of those accounts.
“I continued to delay and after some
time, I went to report the matter at the State Criminal Investigation
Department, Yaba, and then I later reported the matter at the Special
Anti-Robbery Squad, Ikeja.”
Owolabi said as she delayed payment, the
caller continued to send her threat messages. She said the caller
seemed to know where she was and was monitoring her family, causing them
to live in fear.
“The caller seemed to be following me
everywhere. If I turned on the generator, the caller would call my phone
and say I just turned on my generator. The caller would even tell me
what my seven-year-old son was doing in school and at some point, I had
to withdraw my son because they threatened to kidnap him.
“One day, they came to my street firing bullets and they dropped a note in front of my door, threatening to kill me,” she said.
PUNCH Metro learnt that
detectives at SARS were able to get one of the banks to alert the caller
that money had been paid into the accounts.
It was learnt that as the owner of the
bank account attempted to withdraw the money, he was arrested and he
disclosed the identities of his associates.
One of the suspects, Dapo Olowu aka, Junior Pastor,
38, was a neighbour to the Owolabis. He was arrested alongside other
suspects such as Olasunkanmi Areago, 20, and Adeniji Ochuko,33. Their
gang was led by one Taiwo Akindurodemi, who is currently at large.
Olowu, who claims to be a pastor said,
“Akindurodemi is my cousin. He got information regarding my neighbour’s
housemaid and told me that the Owolabis were responsible for the death
of their housemaid. He deceived me into believing that they indeed
killed their housemaid. I did not know that he was lying.”
Areago, who claimed that he was also
deceived by Akindurodemi, said, “We asked Akindurodemi whether he had
evidence that the woman and he said yes. He said he had the picture to
prove that the woman beat up the housemaid till she died and later
hanged her to cover up the crime as suicide case.”
Ochuko, who was the owner of the account into which the victim paid the blackmail money, denied being a member of the gang.
He said, “Akindurodemi told me to send my account number, saying his uncle would pay in some money.
“My giving them my bank account name and
number was not to assist them commit crime. We are friends and I never
knew that they were criminally minded.”
The spokesperson for the state police
command, Ngozi Braide, said the new pattern of crime was becoming
prevalent and urged members of the public to always report to the police
rather than paying criminals.
Source: Punch.
No comments:
Post a Comment