Onyemechi Ugochukwu did not have to write letters or make phone calls to unsuspecting businessmen abroad to make his mark in the art of advance fee fraud. He simply devised another means to dupe people, in what could be seen as local 419. However, it did not take long before nemesis caught up with him after duping a cashier of her master’s N1.5million.
Funny enough, Ugochukwu said that engaging in fraudulent activities was the last thing he ever imagined. He revealed that circumstances forced him to take up the bad job.
According to him, after his secondary education in 2003, he got admission to read Business Administration at Owo Polytechnic. Unfortunately, he ran into local fraudsters who swindled him of all his life’s savings. That aborted his dream of furthering his education.
Painting a pathetic picture of his life to justify his action, Ugochukwu, who lives at Ojodu, Lagos, said he was born in Ondo State and that his parents died in automobile accident in 2002 on the Ore-Benin expressway. He said that since then he has been fending for himself and other siblings.
After the sad incident, he said, he learnt to lay tiles and marbles and was making a modest fortune when he fell victim to fraudsters, again, who duped him of N66, 000 he had saved in 2004.
“One day in 2004, I was trekking to work around Idi Araba area, Lagos when two men accosted me. They spoke French language to me, which I didn’t understand. One of them interpreted the language to me and told me that the man was from one of the Francophone countries. At the end, they sold me a business proposal, which I innocently swallowed. That led into losing what I had saved for my education.”
Ugochukwu said that he reported the matter to the police, but nothing came out of it. The police advised him to forget the people and go on with his job.
“I said so all my efforts have all gone down the drain,” he revealed.
To make matters worse, one of those who duped him accosted him at Idi Araba and boldly told him to forget the money he lost.
Ugochukwu, speaking incoherently, said he was livid and was contemplating what to do to the man when he told him he was going to teach him how to swindle people.
He said: “When I saw the guy, I was very angry and was thinking of how to deal with him, but he told me to forget the money, adding that he was going to teach me how to make money duping people. So the guy disarmed me and I listened to his proposal on local 419. He lectured me on how to get money from people. He told me that for one to succeed in this local 419, one has to be articulate, read the mind of one’s perceived victims and play on their fantasy.”
Armed with these ideas, Ugochukwu decided to join the fray.
Few weeks ago, his trap caught a victim. He was in a car with his gang, heading to the Lagos Island when a girl, Florence Iwuala, who was going to her shop on the Island, stopped the vehicle at Orile, thinking it was a commercialcab. She boarded. On the way, one of the passengers alighted and the car immediately zoomed off. The other two passengers and the driver started laughing and rejoicing. They said, to the hearing of Florence, that the person that alighted from the car was an Hausa businessman and he had forgotten his bag in the booth of the car. The content of the bag, they told Florence, was US dollars, adding that how to open the bag would be a problem because the man may have locked the bag with charm. They told her that it would take a more powerful charm and prayers to open the bag before they could share the money, which was about one million dollars.
With such story, a dummy was being sold to Florence, who fell for it.
Ugochukwu had asked Florence if she was an Igbo. When she answered in the affirmative, the kingpin told her, in Igbo, that fortune had come their way but the only problem was how to open the bag. She got a condition to partake in the booty. By this time, the lady started calculating how much she would get from a million dollars.
One of the gang members, who also posed as a passenger, said he knew of a powerful voodoo priest who could open the bag. He added, however, that the man would charge a high fee because the money in the bag was so much. They asked Florence to contribute N50,000. They also brought an object for all of them to take an oath not to reveal what they were doing. According to them, if any of them revealed the business the person would die or run mad.
With this, Florence was hypnotised. She went to her master’s shop and took N50,000. This was the opening of the faucet to drain the finances of Florence’s master who deals in electronic and electrical items.
Ugochukwu said that five of the gang members shared the money and he received N6,000. He said that Florence had put pressure on them to expedite action for the bag to be opened and the dollars shared, so that she would return the money she took from her master’s shop.
The fraudsters, again, told her that the voodoo priest was unable to unlock the box, even after incantations and that they were looking for a strong man of God or another powerful juju priest for the job. Florence told them that she was a Catholic and that her priest could unlock the bag. At this point, the gang requested N800,000 from Florence, telling her that after this the bag would be unlocked and she would get her share of USD100,000. She obliged and brought the money. Thereafter, Ugochukwu and his gang disappeared. They stopped picking Florence calls. It was then the scale fell off her eyes and she realised that she had been conned.
Ugochukwu said Florence gave the N800,000 to Segun, who acted as the juju man, at the gang’s office at Ijora. According to him, the money was shared with the owner of the office, who got 10 percent and the rest shared among the gangsters. With his earning, he rented an apartment at Ojodu, bought home theatre electronic, refrigerator and other household items.
Ugochukwu also opened a bank account with Bank PHB in the name of Akinnoye Akinwale with account number, 2049550211. He stunned listeners when he said: “After all, I didn’t rob, I only duped someone.”
When the case was incidented at the Festac police division, tracking the gang was herculean, but the experience of the Divisional Police Officer, Usman Ndanbabo, a Chief Superintendent of Police, was brought to bear. After some days, Ugochukwu was arrested at his Ojodu residence.
While Ugochukwu said Florence gave them only N850, 000, Florence insists that the gang collected N1.5 million from her. Never underestimate the power of greed.This is why i have no pity for people who are scammed under such circumstances.You want to reap another person's sweat and in the process, you lose all you have.Tomorrow, these people will be playing the victim but if the situation was real and there was indeed $1 million USD in that bag, she would have been lavishing her share right now at the expense of another person's sorrow. Greed and Fear! The greatest weaknesses of mankind till date! |
