How man defrauded ailing friend N15m raised for overseas surgery

Rafiu Kehinde Ambali was allegedly defrauded of over N15 million raised online for his treatment in India by a friend following a serious health challenge that affected part of his face and left him struggling with speech. Efforts to recover the money have been difficult despite the involvement of security agencies, Daily Trust Saturday reports.

It was difficult to get him to speak to Daily Trust Saturday from his hospital bed on phone in Osgobo, Osun State because of his health condition. 

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From a lively and charismatic fellow who was full of life, Ambali, 32, is in a pitiable state and life is becoming more difficult.

The trajectory of the 1999 graduate of the University of Lagos to his present sorry condition began in 2021 after the completion of his National Youth Service (NYSC) programme in Sokoto State. With two failed surgeries, escalating cost of importation of his drugs and the depression from the action of a once trusted friend that saw about N15m disappear from the over N16million raised for his treatment from his account for overseas surgery in India, it has been a period of regret for him.

It was gathered that he was first diagnosed with Diabetic Ketoacidosis (DKA) or acute diabetes and initially admitted at the Goronyo General Hospital for treatment in Sokoto State. Following the continuous rise in his sugar level, which morphed into complicated “Rhinocerebral Mucormycorses”, he was later transferred to the Usman Dan-Fodio University Teaching Hospital, Sokoto.

Eventually, he reportedly developed “extreme tissue damage” that eventually cost him his right eye. Efforts to continue his treatment and reconstruct his face in Indian to fix the big pit that has now appeared between his right eye and nose suffered serious setback because of the action of a once trusted friend, AbdulKabeer Adeshina, who hails from Ogun State with him.

Speaking on the issue, Abdulrafiu’s wife, Rosheedat, said the problem began some months to the end of his service in Sokoto when he “started developing fungal infection, which we mistook for malaria. It ate his right face, cut off one of his noses and ate deep into his mouth, making it difficult for him to speak. He was unable to eat and was very much in pain, coupled with the social burden that came with.”

Narrating the incident through a friend, Abu Roshaad, who was a member of the fundraising committee for his treatment on line, Abdulrauf told Daily Trust Saturday that the action of his friend had put his life in danger.

He said, “When this problem started, AbdulKabeer was the only one that was able to be with me more than any family member or relative. He was the one that was in charge of all the tests conducted pre, during and prior to all the surgeries. He was the one that coordinated any payment we needed to make. He had access to all my accounts details, passwords and pins. 

“After the diagnosis, we were told that the surgery would cost $35,000, which was equivalent to N17m then. We were able to raise the money after we put his plight on the social media and people contributed to the cause.

“But while the process to go to India was on, AbdulKabeer said I should lend him N7m to domicile in his account as statement of fund to process a visa for his postgraduate studies in Czech Republic.

“Although the entire members of the committee set up to raise the fund raised concern over it, I later gave him the money after much pressure and his promise to freeze any withdrawal from his account henceforth. He was the only one I had been with, and had done really great in my treatment and management. And since he was not going to spend the money, I saw our refusal as a path to denying his progress as a friend, so I transferred the money to him,” he added.

Explaining further, Aboo Roshaad said AbdulKabeer started behaving strange after the fundraising online. 

“None of us were aware that he later gave him the money until when events started to unfold. Suddenly, he began to downplay the move to fly him to India and said they had made contact with a Saudi-sponsored “Physicians Without Boarders” through one of the doctors in the Usman Dan-Fodio Specialist Hospital in Sokoto, where he was admitted.

“Although those people came to perform the operation, he didn’t tell us that it was a Nigerian plastic surgeon, among the group, Prof Peter Olaitan, that performed the surgery. It was when the surgery failed around six months and his surviving eyes became affected that he later said we should take AbdulRafiu to Fiyinfolu Hospital, Dada Estate in Osogbo, Osun State, where Prof Olaitan is in charge. When he was confronted on the development, he said the Saudi doctors were held up in Abuja because of federal government’s COVID restrictions then. But after he accompanied Abdulrafiu to Osogbo, he just disappeared and we can only reach him on phone. The matter has been reported at the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission’s zonal office in Ilorin, Kwara State and the police in Osun, but nothing concrete has come out of it.

“But as soon as Abdulrafiu was willed into the theatre, AbdulKabeer secretly used his phone to transfer another N7.5m to his own account out of the raised fund and deleted all the alerts from Abdulrafiu’s phone, email and apps. Maybe he thought the eye operation would not be successful. It was when we needed to buy N2,000 worth of drug while he was still being operated upon that Abdulrafiu’s younger brother who came to stay with him called his family to send the money. It was the alert from that transaction that exposed him”.    

When contacted on phone, AbdulKabeer, who admitted the allegation, told Daily Trust Saturday that he had started refunding the money. He had explained in several audio clips obtained by our correspondent that he froze his account because of the activities of bandits along the Sokoto/Zamfara axis in case he was kidnapped, adding that he invested everything in crypto currency and fish business.  

“I later unfroze it because that is the account I am using for my transaction. But this time, I was already indebted to the tune of about N2m and I thought on investing the money on crypto currency to make profit, clear my debt and establish myself from the proceeds. 

“I withdrew another N7.5m behind him to make it N14.5 altogether and deleted the alert. This happened in March 2022 in Osogbo. But we have agreed that I should commence the payment in installment, which I have started. I prayed to complete it. I have about N9m left,” he added. 

Also, AbdulKabeer’s wife, Nofisat, told Daily Trust Saturday that although she was not privy to the agreement between both parties on the repayment, her husband has been sending not less than N50,000 to Abdulrafiu’s account, but not monthly. Nofisat, who spoke from Lagos, added that AbdulKabeer had travelled and she did not know his destination. 

While speaking with Daily Trust Saturday on Friday, Alhaji Mutiu Taiwo Adeshina, AbdulKabeer’s father said his son had started to refund the money. Asked his son’s whereabouts, he said, “The most important thing is to refund the money, which process we have started.”

According to Aboo Roshaad, “Since he (AbdulKabeer) was pressurised to send about N4m to get three bottles of 100mg of Posaconazole, a prescription drug from Canada when the health of Abdulrafiu was very critical, he has been sending between N20,000 and N50,000, which has even stopped.”

He said the development had made it difficult to make any appreciable progress on his health situation, adding that even if he has no permanent address for how, it should not be difficult for the EFCC to trace and track him since he was still communicating through phone.

After several calls to inquire of his present state of health, Professor Olaitan finally spoke with our correspondent on Thursday night saying, “It is too late to be discussing the issue.” He requested to be called back in the morning, but he refused to answer several calls to him on Friday before filing this report.

Also, when contacted, a senior staff of the EFCC zonal command, Ilorin, who craved anonymity said, “I am at a public function but I will try to trace the petition when I get to office and get back to you. He was yet to do so before this report was filed on Friday.