The police in Edo State have arrested four suspects, Godwin Uchenna, Enato Segiru, Aliu Abdulganiyu and Muhammed, for allegedly defrauding a woman N3.5 million through an Opay account at the Igarra area in Akoko-Edo LGA.
The command’s spokesperson, Chidi Nwabuzor, said the four-man syndicate used friends and family members’ phone numbers to open Opay and Palmpay accounts and used them to defraud people.
He said the suspects succeeded in defrauding one Erameachon Francis of N300,000 and N3,346,000 before they were arrested.
While parading them, the leader of the syndicate, Godwin Uchenna (19), a tailor apprentice, told newsmen that, “I opened an Opay account with Muhammed’s sister’s phone number where I asked people to come and borrow money for their businesses.
“One woman appeared on my Facebook page and chatted that she was interested. I told her to send her bank details to me; which she did. She also sent her four-digit pin which I used to enter the Opay money app we created but there was no money in her account because she was owing a loan.
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“After four days, when I opened the app she had already paid N600,000 and we connected the app to Muhammed’s ATM card and we transferred the money to Muhammed’s bank’s account.
“From the money, I gave Muhammed N200,000, N30,000 to Segiru, but Abdulganiyu said he didn’t need the money. I used N70,000 to buy clothes while the balance is in my account.”
He, however, said that the girl who they used her phone number to open the Opay account was not involved in the business and didn’t know anything about it.