The name, Moses Taiwo Olalekan, may not ring a bell to many people, but for the anti-graft agencies, especially the Special Fraud Unit(SFU), in Ikoyi, Lagos, this name remains a household name, especially when issues of conspiracy, forgery, obtaining money under false pretence and stealing are concerned. Olalekan has become one of the regular guests at SFU.

Indeed, detectives have started wondering how fast he used to quickly leave prisons and go back to his old ways.

Call him Olalekan, Gbenga Olowoyo or Barrister Olatunji when it comes to illegal businesses, you may not be wrong.

At different occasions, Olalekan had had to change his name just to dupe unsuspecting victims, by claiming to be a legal property agent.

He was however unfortunate, when detectives from SFU nabbed him for a similar crime.

He was said to have duped one of his victims the sum of N15 million under the guise that he was into buying and selling of landed properties.

Olalekan and his partners in crime, had until his arrest, duped various persons of millions of naira while issuing fake Certificate of Occupancy (C of O) to his victims.

Sometimes in January, 2009, in one of the cases where Olalekan was known as Barrister Olatunji, he and his co-conspirators, now at large, duped their victim the sum of N20 million for the sale of a property at Magodo GRA, Lagos. The victim was said to have paid the suspect and his gang the money in Ibadan, a place later discovered to be their hideout.

When arrested, he confirmed the allegations, but denied being the leader of the syndicate.

He claimed that it was one Barrister Olaitan Olatunde and his principal, one Otunba Babayemi, also known as Amofin Agba that committed the offences, claiming that he was only given N100.000 . He further revealed that they normally get the photocopies of the Cof O they used to perpetuate their crimes from one Idowu Salami, a former staff of Alausa Land Registry.

In another case where he was apprehended by the anti-graft agency, he and his co-conspirators, one Victor Bassey and Stella Ogbonna, who had earlier confessed to the crime, were alleged to have forged a Cof O of a property in Lekki, an international passport and NEPA Bills of the owner of the property and defrauded their victim of the sum of N25 million.

Investigations revealed that the suspect was also known as Gbenga Olowoyo a.k.a Oloye.

He was reported to be at large at a point in time with one of his partners, Idowu Adelaja Salami. Further investigations revealed that he was the leader of a syndicate where six suspects including one female were arrested and paraded by the Commissioner of Police (CP) SFU, Mr. Saba Ndagi, for obtaining the sum of N41 million, two unregistered Mark Truck and a Toyota Camry. The suspects were later arraigned.

Olalekan and his cohorts were earlier on April 29, 2010, arrested for trying to defraud their victim under pretence of selling landed property at Lekki Phase ‘2’ for the sum of N65 million.

The suspects lured their victim to Ibadan, claiming that the purported owner of the property for sale was sick and in need of money. The victim went to Ibadan with the suspects and gave the purported sick owner the sum of N2.2 million and later paid N2.8 million into the account of Olalekan.

The victim was however lucky as he discovered that the Cof O was fake at about the time he was billed to pay the balance of the total sum of N60 million.

Upon the arrest of Olalekan, he allegedly confessed that he was one of the leaders of the syndicate and refunded the sum of N15 million after which he jumped bail.

In a related development, the SFU in its effort to rid the society of white collar crimes, has arrested one Dewale Bodurin for stealing stocks belonging to his former clients.

Bodurin was said to be a manager at a Port-Harcourt branch of a now defunct stock broking firm.

Trouble began for him, when one of his former clients (names withheld), discovered that his shares to the tune of N1,288,706.23k had to be sold without his authorization.

The victim was said to have petitioned the Securities and Exchange Commission which traced the sale to an existing Brokerage House, an effort that prompted his arrest.

Investigations revealed that when his firm, Alliance Capital Security Limited went out for business in 2008, he assumed the identity of the stock owner and subsequently transferred their shares to an existing stock-broking firm.

He went on to open accounts in banks in the name of the stock holders, opened e-mail addreses and generally assumed the client’s identity.

He was said to have sent e-mail instructions to the trading house to sell the shares and the money paid into the ficticious accounts he opened.

In the course of the investigation, he was also found to have sold stocks to a tune of N521.121.34k belonging to one Robert Kereni, a former client whose whereabouts is presently unknown.

Investigation is still on to trace other former clients whose shares he might have fraudulently sold.

Ndagi, seized the opportunity to advice clients of Alliance Capital Securities Limited to cross-check the status of their portfolios with CSCS Ltd.

He also urged members of the public to watch out before going into business of buying landed property, whether transacting with the rightful owners or not.

According to the police chief, search should be conducted properly before final payment is made. He also urged the public to adequately check the Cof O at the Land Registry for due diligence.

He, however, reassured that any member of the Land Registry found to be collaborating with these fraudsters, would be apprehended and made to face the wrath of the law.

By Godwin Akpan



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