A group of fraudsters that specialise in duping innocent members of the society are out of luck after a member of the cartel was arrested by the police. He told AKINWALE ABORISADE about the activities of the group and his involvement in the latest deal

For a group of fraudsters – otherwise called 419ners – in the city of Ibadan, the Oyo State capital, it appears that things are no longer pleasant. The Oyo State Police Command had launched a war against the illegal business with a declaration that it would no longer be business as usual for the perpetrators.

As the campaign kicks off in earnest, the Oyo State Public Relations Officer, Ms. Olabisi Okuwobi, has announced that one of the members of a notorious cartel has been trapped. She says investigations are ongoing to get other members of the group.

Afees Babatunde, 27, who was identified as a member of the Ekwueme 419 group in Ibadan is presently cooling his feet in police custody over a fraud case. The Divisional Crime Officer of Agugu Police Station, Mr. Ayoola Olawole, told SUNDAY PUNCH that the suspect had volunteered some useful information about the group, which he said was led by a man popularly called ‘Chief.’

Babatunde, a tall and calm-looking young man, said he was introduced to the business by one older folk in his neighbourhood in Mushin, Lagos State, who is simply identified as Femi. Babatunde, who recalled that his father, a retired soldier, had earlier raised an eyebrow about his lifestyle, said, ”He (his father) had warned that I should desist from moving with bad boys. He once threatened to disown me if I went into crime, but I did not heed his advice.”

A native of Abeokuta in Ogun State, Babatunde lived in Lagos with his parents. Coming from a polygamous setting, he was the second child of his mother, who happened to be the second wife of his father. Babatunde, after his Junior Secondary School examination at Igbobi Boys College, Fadeyi, Lagos, in 2003, trained as a video cameraman, but he desired a quick means of getting rich.

Whenever he was idle, Babatunde said he was always in the company of Femi, his neighbour who eventually introduced him to the 419 business. He said, ”Uncle Femi is married, but his wife does not live with him. The man used to send me to his girlfriends and was always sending me on errand to buy things for him.”

As gratification for being a good boy, Femi always oiled Babatunde‘s palm with cash. That got the two even closer. Babatunde said that considering the lavish manner in which Femi spent money, he believed that there was more to it than met the eye. He became curious and swore to know the secret of his easy-gotten money, which he often freely doled out on people around him.

One day, Babatunde asked what Femi did for a living. He however failed to tell him. The young man then swore never to have anything to do with him unless he opened up to him. Things then fell apart between the estranged friends. But the animosity did not last long. One of Femi‘s girlfriends had visited shortly after they parted ways and he beckoned Babatunde to run errands for him. But before the young man obliged, he made Femi promise that he would disclose his trade to him and fix him up in the same line of business.

With the deal done, Femi introduced Babatunde to the 419 business. As a member of the hit-cartel, he was expected to be bright and quick. But he was said to have lacked the required acumen to survive in the murky terrain and so was soon pushed out. Babatunde told SUNDAY PUNCH that he had foiled his first deal with Femi‘s cartel by making them lose a deal in Ikeja, Lagos in February 2010. Since there was no room for training he was forcefully eased out.

Efforts to reunite with the group proved abortive. But Babatunde was not ready to give up. He relocated to Ibadan and settled with a childhood friend, whom he identified as Wasiu. He encouraged his friend to join up in the shady deal, but Wasiu turned out to be an unwilling horse. Babatunde then decided to scout round for those who could be willing.

During one of his outings with Wasiu, he ran into a gang at a beer parlour at Iwo Road area of Ibadan. There he found new friends who happen to be members of a notorious 419 group. But it took time before he was admitted into their fold. He said, ”They were initially unwilling because they thought I was a police undercover agent. But with my persistence they let me into their midst.” He was introduced to their ringleader simply known by many as Ekwueme a.k.a. Chief. After an assessment, he was admitted as an ad hoc member of the fold.

But as a matter of principle, a new member in the group was usually kept at arm‘s length and not allowed to have privileged information about members‘ details such as house address, full names and hangouts. They had a common meeting place at Onipasan in Ibadan. Until new members were certified fit and committed to the group, they would be restricted to see them only at the common meeting place.

At about 3 pm on July 8, 2010, the group had a successful pact. Four members of the group: Babatunde, Tope, Fatai and Sade were riding in a taxi along Iwo Road area of the Lagos/Ibadan Expressway when an unsuspecting female student of Lead City University, Vivian Obi, who was on her way to school, waved their cab down.

One of them who pretended to be a passenger with a bag of money, which he lied that he had stolen, offered to disembark from the vehicle. Other occupants of the cab with the exception of Obi insisted that they would have their own share of the loot or raise an alarm. The passenger agreed that he would share the money with them, but said they must employ the services of a spiritualist who could help them cast the spell off the ill-gotten money.

Obi swallowed the bait and got hooked. At the end of the day, she lost her mother‘s N2.7m to the deal. With an intention to be part of the sharing, she followed the group comprising three men and a lady to a make-believe-temple, where she was forced to swear to an oath that she would not betray the group to the police. She also swore to bring money to the shrine as propitiation.

In matter of days, Obi travelled to Lagos and returned with the said sum of money, which she stole from her mother‘s shop. While her parent‘s rage was still on, the group called the embattled lady to bring another sum of N250,000. She then confessed to her parents with an explanation that she took the money to the gang for fear of being killed by the gods having sworn to an oath in the temple. She made a formal complaint at the Agugu Police Station, Ibadan on July 24.

With the assistance of the police, she went to the spot where the group instructed her to bring the N250,000 cash on July 28. There, Babatunde was caught. According to the DCO of Agugu, the suspect with other members of the group had taken to their heels at the sight of some plain uniformed police officers. But Babatunde was unlucky. Olawole said the suspect, in an attempt to escape, would have been crushed by the police truck, but was arrested alive.

Getting the other members of the gang was difficult because the suspect in the police net was a new member of the fold, who had not got sufficient clue to vital details about them. He told the police that his own share of the loot was N220,000. But according to him, the remaining sum left on him at the time of his arrest was N15,000.

The police alleged that the ringleader of the group was making frantic efforts to secure Babatunde‘s release through negotiation on the telephone. They were said to have offered to pay an undisclosed amount to the police so as to rest the case and secure the release of their boy, but the police said they had insisted that the group must surrender themselves.
http://www.punchng.com/Articl.aspx?theartic=Art201008083101817

Hahahahha ,

Play a sucker to catch a sucker: Robert Greene, The 48 laws of power.

The obi of a girl is as guilty as the people who duped her, so case closed.

Keiiiiiiiii,
Yoruba people and Fraud,

Wily+Wily:

Keiiiiiiiii,
Yoruba people and Fraud,

fraud has no ethnic affiliation.

dustydee:

fraud has no ethnic affiliation.

Yes, others learn how to practice Fraud, but Yorubas are hereditary Fraudstars.

These 'Aba' people self? with Yoruba names.

These 'aba' people sef? with Yoruba names.