Three students of Ambrose Alli University, Ekpoma, Edo State, have been arrested by detectives of the Nigeria Police Special Fraud Unit (SFU), Milverton Road, Ikoyi.


They allegedly withdrew about N34 million fraudulently from a … Bank account through the automated teller machine (ATM). The fraud was detected at the Benin branch of Access Bank Nigeria Plc.
The principal suspect is 20-year-old Timothy Ehimea, a part-time student of Science Laboratory Technology at the Ambrose Alli University, Ekpoma, Edo State.
Other suspects are, Ighodaro Osahon, 22, Electrical Engineering and George Osagale, 24, a Geography and Physical Planning final year student.
They are all childhood friends who hail from Esan in Edo State.
According to a source at SFU, “We received a strongly worded petition addressed to the Commissioner of Police in charge of SFU, Mr. Olayinka Balogun from Access Bank Nigeria Plc., regarding about N34 million Automated Machine Fraud (ATM) being perpetrated by an Ambrose Alli University student.
“The copy of the petition stated further that ‘one Ehimea on several occasions manipulated the ATM machine of the bank’s branch at 43B, Evifa Bufu Road, Benin City and his access card visa with number 4751-7500-0003 to withdraw the sums between April and June this year.’ Upon receiving a copy of the petition, we swung into investigation.”
Before Ehimea was arrested last week, investigation showed that he was living like a king on the campus, cruising around in his newly acquired cartoon colour Toyota Nissan Pathfinder sport utility veicle (SUV) with registration number AW 141 USR.

Ehimea was arrested inside the banking hall where, according to the source, he was officially invited for some other multi-million naira related investment with the bank and a red carpet was rolled out for the unsuspecting bank visitor. Until his arrest last week, officials of the bank inquired about his source of income and his business that netted millions of naira in such a short time.
Ehimea lied to them that he was a computer analyst and computer engineer working for a Google search agency with the United States of America, and each time they paid him with thousand of American dollars.

SFU investigations revealed further that the ATM fraud whizkid operated about five different bank accounts through which he siphoned the ill-gotten money with fake credit cards.
The cards’ numbers are: 023002300002328, 030031000360, 0300350060038; 0301510025641 and 0101620002540.
In his confessional statement, Ehimea admitted all charges levelled against him.
According to him, “what I illegally withdrew was not N34 million but N20 million.
“One morning that I needed to cash money from the bank with my Access Bank visa card, I spotted the faulty machine. I discovered that each time I withdrew money my account would not be debited, so I just kept on withdrawing.
“But each time I withdrew some money, my account was credited again. I was always scared, but I would collect it, rush back to the banking hall and re-credit my account. I did this several times that I could not even remember.”
When Ehimea sensed the looming danger, he cleverly transferred about N12 million to his friend, Ighodaro Osahon’s, account at GT Bank, Benin, for safe keep, and hired the services of one solicitor identified as Mr. Edokpaigbe Edobor to fight his cause. He was paid N50,000 for his legal services.

PM.News further gathered that Ehimea cleverly transferred some amount to different banks. These are, ;N3 million, Oceanic Bank; N17 million and United Bank of Africa ;N5 million.
When police questioned both George Osagale and Ighodaro Osahon about the level of their involvement, they denied any knowledge of the ATM scam and Ighodaro stated that “I don’t know that Ehimea had transferred the N12 million into my GTBank account.”
Items recovered from Ehimea include five credit cards and six brands of handsets.
Commenting on the ATM fraud, the Commissioner of Police, Special Fraud Unit, Mr. Olayinka Balogun, advised all parents to engaged their children meaningfully.
“Children of such ages are very clever and brilliant. If their brains were not positively engaged it could be used negatively. Idle hands are the devil’s workshops,” said Balogun.
Meanwhile, the matter has been transferred to the office of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) at Awolowo Road, Ikoyi, for further investigation.

It is baffling to hear that 34million naira was withdrawn via an ATM?!

Nigerian banks are indeed stupid

How can they allow that?

There should be a set amount allowed during a period, anything more than that, pop into the bank with genuine ID to collect!!

Shameful!!

_{oh and before i forget, woe betide all scammers and 419ers!}

“One morning that I needed to cash money from the bank with my Access Bank visa card, I spotted the faulty machine. I discovered that each time I withdrew money my account would not be debited, so I just kept on withdrawing.
“But each time I withdrew some money, my account was credited again. I was always scared, but I would collect it, rush back to the banking hall and re-credit my account. I did this several times that I could not even remember.”
When Ehimea sensed the looming danger, he cleverly transferred about N12 million to his friend, Ighodaro Osahon’s, account at GT Bank, Benin, for safe keep, and hired the services of one solicitor identified as Mr. Edokpaigbe Edobor to fight his cause. He was paid N50,000 for his legal services

These boys should be FREED with only N5,000.00.

This would send signals to the bank to ensure they have proper IT security in place.

MrCrackles:

It is baffling to hear that 34million naira was withdrawn via an ATM?!

Shameful!!

_{oh and before i forget, woe betide all scammers and 419ers!}

It is baffling to hear that 34million naira was withdrawn via an ATM?

na true you talk bros

landis:

These boys should be FREED with only N5,000.00.

This would send signals to the bank to ensure they have proper IT security in place.

don't you just love something for nothing society? what else would like to excuse. it is like the tolerance treash hold of you guys has no limit.  what is wrong with honesty? what does students need  34million naira for?

MrCrackles:

It is baffling to hear that 34million naira was withdrawn via an ATM?!

Nigerian banks are indeed stupid

How can they allow that?

There should be a set amount allowed during a period, anything more than that, pop into the bank with genuine ID to collect!!

Shameful!!

_{oh and before i forget, woe betide all scammers and 419ers!}

Nah, the maximum amount is N20,000 at one time. He withdrew N34M (he claims it was N20M) over 2 months. Repeatedly. Or did you mean a set amount over so and so period? you're right about that. In any case they should have smelt a rat after 3, 4 withdrawals nah. haba. There were major screwups on the banks' part.

JJYOU:

don't you just love something for nothing society? what else would like to excuse. it is like the tolerance treash hold of you guys has no limit. what is wrong with honesty? what does students need 34million naira for?

Stay loose, JJYOU. What landis meant, i believe, is that the bigger blame lies with the bank for security lapses. No one is saying those students did good.

carmelily:

Stay loose, JJYOU. What landis meant, i believe, is that the bigger blame lies with the bank for security lapses. No one is saying those students did good.

landis:

These boys should be FREED with only N5,000.00.

This would send signals to the bank to ensure they have proper IT security in place.

he actually said

These boys should be FREED with only N5,000.00.

the greatest and most expensive of technology fails. they are products of something for nothing society.

carmelily:

Nah, the maximum amount is N20,000 at one time. He withdrew N34M (he claims it was N20M) over 2 months. Repeatedly. Or did you mean a set amount over so and so period? you're right about that. In any case they should have smelt a rat after 3, 4 withdrawals nah. haba. There were major screwups on the banks' part.

This is the point

A bank should grow suspicious if over 2months there are incessant and continuous withdrawals a short period of time

I bet do.s useless banks don't a.v an active fraud and account security monitoring team, if they do, they w.ld a.v detected d. irregular withdrawal pattern

After a few incessant withdrawals, they should be making enquiries with the account owner or block the cashcard!!

I went to America a few months ago, i logged onto my UK bank account online, a day after, access was blocked, why? because it was an unusual pattern!

someone who has such amount of money would not withdraw a large sum from the ATM and that should have sounded out the red alert!!

Disgraceful!

well,I'm not in the least surprised.
what can one expect from the half-baked
and mediocre security experts we have
in this country.
it can only get worse.

i dont beleive this story. it not possible to withdraw 34 million naira via atm in such a such period. With a withdrawal ceiling of 80 k daily that means he had to withdraw 80k naira every day for 425 days. that aint possible . somtin fishy is amiss, i suspect bank insider

MrCrackles:

someone who has such amount of money would not withdraw a large sum from the ATM and that should have sounded out the red alert!!

exactly.

carmelily:



l
[/b]

According to him, “what I illegally withdrew was not N34 million but N20 million.
“One morning that I needed to cash money from the bank with my Access Bank visa card, I spotted the faulty machine. I discovered that each time I withdrew money my account would not be debited, so I just kept on withdrawing.

PM.News further gathered that Ehimea cleverly transferred some amount to different banks. These are, ;N3 million, Oceanic Bank; N17 million and United Bank of Africa ;N5 million.
When police questioned both George Osagale and Ighodaro Osahon about the level of their involvement, they denied any knowledge of the ATM scam and Ighodaro stated that “I don’t know that Ehimea had transferred the N12 million into my GTBank account.”
Items recovered from Ehimea include five credit cards and six brands of handsets.

My eagle eye as 'Okoro-man wey i be' tells me there is more to this scam than meets the eye.

First the boy says 20m, Banks says 34m
therefore 34m will be written off, hmmm
OR
there is an insider somewhere we haven't heard about.
how can he perpetuate such acts without flags being raised as Mr Crackles pointed out earlier
These banks spend millions on state of d art IT systems & processes to safeguard against such.
unless some sharp guy on the inside, who has been 'planning' such a scam suddenly sees a fall guy to hide behind.

For all i care this matter should be thoroughly investigated and the Bank sanctioned for laxity.

EFCC and these banks through the Financial Intelligence Unit have World Class systems in place to detect such anomalies.
unless like i said some insider manipulates the system to overlook a few transactions of personal interest.

The Mugu Student will now serve his jail term plus some other dudes.

By d Way, One of the fools pictured even has a smirk abi smile on his face.
Like this stuff is supposed to be funny.
He shuld wait until dem give am Husband for Ikoyi or Kirikiri prison

diggler:

By d Way, One of the fools pictured even has a smirk abi smile on his face.
Like this stuff is supposed to be funny.
He shuld wait until them give am [b]Husband [/b]for Ikoyi or Kirikiri prison

LMAO

That middle one is fine o. Who has his number?

spikedcylinder:

That middle one is fine o. Who has his number?

na small pickin be that o.

this stori don tey na! Why now?? it was in the news months back!

GoldCircle:

this stori don tey na! Why now?? it was in the news months back!

abi oooo
its a stale news.anyway,i believe it was an inside job,it just cudnt have been possible to withdraw such an amount of money without someone from the bank as an accomplice.

Pls where exactly is this ATM machine?
i want to buy pathfinder.

JJYOU:

na small pickin be that o.

Ehen? And dem tell you say abi old woman?

[s]What is it with people on this forum thinking I'm old sef?[/s]

Nigerian Banks are very useless, how could they withdrawn N34 Million from ATM machines for so long.

How much can you withdraw in one day, N1 Million Naira.

Absolute craziness.

This is a security lapse in the bank's security feature.

I think its a big disgrace parading these students on whatever form of media for people to see, top governnment officials are getting away with murder, and doing nothing for the people but looting the nation. Nothing is working in Nigeria but these people are buiding house after house for themslves, national money missing without trace and investigation, non functional police system, no education, power etc. these people are the real thieves and should be arrested, striped of every thing they have amassed and jailed for a very long time. from obj, to the local gov chairman that is stealing our money, to the new ministers or whoever. I am absolutely bitter about these people. Even if you wanna steal, at least do something for the country. how can a father tell his son not to steal when he himself is a thief that is the case in Nigeria. I wish i had it in me to commit murder, i will single handedly wipe out these people and make their lives miserable as they have been doing to us Nigerians for years. We need change, we need patriotic people, we need young educated people, not these old men that know nothing and the wind of change has passsed. i wish i can really express my anger and bitterness for people to see.

spikedcylinder:

That middle one is fine o. Who has his number?

@spiked

na lie. _{e resemble urhobo man!}

femiify:

i wish i can really express my anger and bitterness for people to see.

You just did!

This is the height of incompetence. How is possible that in that short period of time, that amount of money could be taken from the cash machine? I dont honestly believe that amount to be correct.