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Nigerian Policemen Forcefully Extort N100,000 From Phone Dealer In Lagos, Label Him Fraudster

April 14, 2023

The policemen are attached to the Okokomaiko division of the Lagos State Police Command.

A mobile phone dealer at the Alaba International Market, Lagos State who identified himself as Onyinyechi Esther Anwusi, has lamented how some policemen attached to the Nigeria Police Force, Lagos State Police Command, forcefully extorted the sum of N100,000 from him without finding incriminating evidence on him.

The policemen are attached to the Okokomaiko division of the Lagos State Police Command.

SaharaReporters obtained a copy of the transaction receipt of the sum of N101,000 generated from Access Bank mobile App by the victim.

The receipt showed that the money was received by Ndueso Okon Archibong with the account number 9550455342, PalmPay Limited.

The victim narrated that the police officers accosted and searched him without warrant, then forced him to unlock his mobile phone and search through the contents of his phone but nothing incriminating was found.

The officers thereafter forced him to write a statement under duress indicting himself as an internet fraudster popularly known “as a Yahoo Yahoo boy” and forcefully made him pay the sum of N100,000 for doing nothing.

A witness to the incident told SaharaReporters that “This is coming a few days after men of the Nigerian police force, the same Okokomaiko division extorted a citizen of the sum of N31,000 for not having an ID card.”

A senior police officer at the station said the Okokomaiko Divisional Police Officer days ago still settled a similar case among the policemen, adding that the latest incident should be brought to the attention of the DPO.

The state police spokesperson, Benjamin Hundeyin, could not be reached for comment.

CP Idowu Owohunwa has ordered the immediate removal of DPO Okokomaiko for his lack of supervision of his men. CP Owohunwa has also ordered commencement of disciplinary action against him and all his indicted officers (who are already in the state headquarters).

Chinese ‘bribed Nigerian militants for access to vast mineral reserves’

Chinese mining bosses are funding Nigerian militant groups in order to secure access to the country’s mineral reserves, raising the prospect that Beijing could be indirectly funding terror in Africa’s largest economy.

Chinese companies working in parts of Nigeria where attacks are frequent have been striking security deals with insurgents, The Times has learnt. Attacks on Chinese citizens, of whom there are said to be between 100,000 and 200,000 in Nigeria, have become regular occurrences in recent years amid the country’s many conflicts.

Between 2019 and last year, 51 Chinese people are known to have been kidnapped and three killed. It is likely that many more incidents go unreported. The Chinese embassy in Abuja has now urged its citizens to “strengthen civil defence, physical defence and technical defence measures”.

China is Nigeria’s No 1 trading partner and has more than 1,000 companies registered in the country, after a decade in which it has poured vast sums into infrastructure projects to overtake the US as Africa’s largest investor.

Research shared with The Times from SBM Intelligence, a Lagos-based analytical group, has revealed videos on social media and WhatsApp of militant leaders boasting that they are so powerful that Chinese workers wishing to operate in their areas must pay them “rent”. They have taken over swathes of northwest Nigeria, turning the region into the country’s bloodiest conflict zone.

Insurgents discuss the payments on social media. Sources on the ground in the states of Zamfara and Katsina have confirmed that, in the words of Ikemesit Effiong, SBM’s head of research, “these guys are perfectly willing to pay off whoever needs to be paid off and have no qualms about it and are allowed to carry out operations”.

In one pocket of Zamfara, researchers found, interaction with militants runs so deep that some serve as runners for Chinese miners who have spread throughout Nigeria, controlling digs for gold. The country has some of the largest gold reserves in the world.

Often operating informally in small groups as contractors registered to clearing-house companies, they speak local languages and can stay for years at a time living in remote areas that western companies consider off-limits.

Chinese engineers and staff on hydroelectric dams have described the “hell on earth” of being kidnapped, amid local perceptions that they carry wads of cash. Miners attempt to blend into their host communities but are nonetheless targeted, notably in the case of seven Chinese men who spent more than five months in captivity last year after a militant group in June stormed their mining site at Shiroro in Niger state, leaving 48 people dead.

Chinese mining contractors, who local communities have accused of abuses and paying pitiful wages, often smuggle minerals out of the country illegally and are sometimes arrested. In 2020, 27 miners, including 17 said to be Chinese, were arrested in Osun state. Last October a Chinese citizen, Gang Deng, 29, was jailed for five years after being found with 25 tonnes of a mineral thought to be lepidolite, containing lithium, which is used in batteries.

SBM also found Chinese workers involved in the Boko Haram conflict in Nigeria’s northeast, with a case of a Chinese smuggler being paid to help a jihadist group move metal ore out of the country.

Alicia Kearns, who chairs the Commons foreign affairs select committee and the China Research Group of MPs, said reports of Chinese companies funding militant groups were “deeply concerning”. She called on the British government to assist Nigeria in “strengthening regulatory oversight and governance of Chinese companies in the sector”.

Separately, large Chinese state-backed companies have turned to Erik Prince, founder of the private security company Blackwater, for help. Prince, a one-time close adviser to Donald Trump, became a controversial figure after four Blackwater security contractors were found guilty of killing innocent civilians in Iraq during a shooting rampage in 2007.

Prince is behind a private security company, Frontier Resources Group, which specialises in helping Chinese companies work in Africa. It has a branch in Nigeria and has been awarded contracts.

Nigeria looks set to continue to choose Chinese investment over that of the West. Yemi Osinbajo, the Nigerian vice-president, pointedly lauded the benefits of Beijing’s support after the African tour by Kamala Harris, the US vice-president, this month, while the incoming President Tinubu has already met the Chinese ambassador.

However, China faces a job to protect its businesses. In the case of miners, analysts predict that kidnappings may continue to rise because their deals with militants are breaking down, either because the militants want more money or are positioning themselves before a change in Nigeria’s government. Effiong called northern miners “sitting ducks”.

Three Nigerians Indicted Over $6m Fraud In US

The seven-count indictment involves the defendants conspiring with others to perpetrate a BEC scheme.

By Ignatius Igwe
Updated April 14, 2023

The United States has charged three Nigerians with money laundering and a fraud scheme with more than $6 million in losses.

The Nigerians – 29-year-old Kosi Goodness Simon-Ebo, James Junior Aliyu aged 28 and Henry Onyedikachi Echefu, aged 31 – are accused of conspiring to commit wire fraud and money laundering related to a business email compromise (BEC) scheme with losses of more than $6 million.

One of them is being extradited from Canada to the U.S. to face a federal indictment on Friday, April 14 in a U.S. District Court in Greenbelt, MD.

In a statement on Thursday, the US Department of Justice said the seven-count indictment involves the defendants conspiring with others to perpetrate a BEC scheme.

Specifically, the indictment alleges that the defendants and their co-conspirators, including co-conspirators residing in the state of Maryland, gained unauthorised access to email accounts associated with individuals and businesses targeted by the conspirators.

It was gathered that the co-conspirators then allegedly sent false wiring instructions to the victims’ email accounts from “spoofed” emails, which are emails with forged sender addresses, to deceive the victims into sending money to bank accounts controlled by perpetrators of the scheme, called “drop accounts”.

The indictment also alleges that the defendants conspired to commit money laundering by disbursing the fraudulently obtained funds in the drop accounts to other accounts by initiating account transfers, withdrawing cash, obtaining cashier’s checks and by writing checks to other individuals and entities, to hide the true ownership and the source of those assets.

If convicted, the defendants each face a maximum sentence of 20 years in federal prison for the wire fraud conspiracy, for the money laundering conspiracy, and for each count of wire fraud, the US justice department said.

Department of Justice
U.S. Attorney’s Office
District of Maryland

Thursday, April 13, 2023

Three Nigerian Nationals Facing Federal Charges Related to a Fraud Scheme With Losses of More Than $6 Million

First Defendant Extradited to the United States Arrived on April 12, 2023

Greenbelt, Maryland – The first of three defendants, Kosi Goodness Simon-Ebo, age 29, has been extradited from Canada to the United States to face a federal indictment, and is scheduled to have his initial appearance on Friday, April 14, 2023, at 3:30 p.m. in U.S. District Court in Greenbelt before U.S. Magistrate Judge Amjel Quereshi.

A federal grand jury returned an indictment charging Simon-Ebo, James Junior Aliyu, a/k/a “Old Soldier,” and “Ghost,” age 28 and Henry Onyedikachi Echefu, age 31, all Nigerian citizens residing in South Africa, with conspiracy to commit wire fraud and money laundering and for wire fraud and money laundering charges related to a business email compromise (“BEC”) scheme with losses of more than $6 million. The indictment was returned on June 24, 2019, and unsealed on July 6, 2022, upon the defendants’ arrests outside the United States.

The indictment was announced by Erek L. Barron, United States Attorney for the District of Maryland; Special Agent in Charge James C. Harris of Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Baltimore; and Special Agent in Charge Matthew R. Stohler of the U.S. Secret Service - Washington Field Office.

According to the seven-count indictment, from February 2016 until at least July 2017, the defendants conspired with others to perpetrate a BEC scheme. Specifically, the indictment alleges that the defendants and their co-conspirators, including co-conspirators residing in Maryland, gained unauthorized access to email accounts associated with individuals and businesses targeted by the conspirators. The co-conspirators then allegedly sent false wiring instructions to the victims’ email accounts from “spoofed” emails, which are emails with forged sender addresses, to deceive the victims into sending money to bank accounts controlled by perpetrators of the scheme, called “drop accounts.”

The indictment also alleges that the defendants conspired to commit money laundering by disbursing the fraudulently obtained funds in the drop accounts to other accounts by initiating account transfers, withdrawing cash, obtaining cashier’s checks and by writing checks to other individuals and entities, to hide the true ownership and the source of those assets. For example, defendant Aliyu is alleged to have made a $350,000 wire transfer from one of the drop accounts in Maryland to an account he controlled in South Africa, knowing that the funds were the proceeds of a crime and that the transaction was designed to conceal the nature, source and ownership of those funds. Finally, the defendants are charged with wire fraud, related to the BEC scheme. Specifically, Simon-Ebo is charged in three wire fraud counts involving $6,343,533.10 in victim funds being wired to accounts controlled by conspirators.

If convicted, the defendants each face a maximum sentence of 20 years in federal prison for the wire fraud conspiracy, for the money laundering conspiracy, and for each count of wire fraud. If convicted, Aliyu also faces a maximum of 20 years in federal prison for money laundering. Actual sentences for federal crimes are typically less than the maximum penalties. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after taking into account the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.

An indictment is not a finding of guilt. An individual charged by indictment is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty at some later criminal proceedings.

United States Attorney Erek L. Barron commended HSI’s Mid-Atlantic El Dorado Task Force and the U.S. Secret Service for their work in the investigation. Mr. Barron thanked Assistant U.S. Attorney Kelly O. Hayes, who is prosecuting the federal case.

For more information on the Maryland U.S. Attorney’s Office, its priorities, and resources available to help the community, please visit www.justice.gov/usao-md and https://www.justice.gov/usao-md/community-outreach.

SUPPLEMENTARY POLLS: IGP ORDERS RESTRICTION OF MOVEMENT ON ELECTION DAY, REITERATES BAN ON VIP AIDES, ESCORTS, STATE SECURITY OUTFITS

Urges Citizens to be Law Abiding, Assures of Unhindered Exercise of Franchise

Sequel to the forthcoming Supplementary Elections scheduled to hold on Saturday 15th of April, 2023, in twentwenty-three states of the Federation covering National Assembly, gubernatorial, and State Houses of Assembly elections in areas where they were not concluded during the previous General Elections, the Inspector-General of Police, IGP Usman Alkali Baba, CFR, has ordered the restriction of all forms of vehicular movement on roads, waterways, and other forms of transportation, from 12 am to 5 pm in all affected states with the exception of those on essential services such as INEC Officials, Electoral Observers, Accredited Media and Observers, Ambulances responding to medical emergencies, firefighters, etc.

Similarly, the IGP reiterates the ban on all security aides to VIPs and escorts from accompanying their principals and politicians to polling booths and collation centres during the election. State-established and owned security outfits/organizations, quasi-security units, and privately-owned guard and security outfits are also barred from participating in election security management.

The affected states comprise Adamawa, Kebbi, Sokoto, Zamfara, Akwa Ibom, Anambra, Bayelsa, Edo, Imo, Kano, Kogi, Oyo, Rivers, Taraba, Jigawa, Ebonyi, Ekiti, Kaduna, Niger, Ogun, Yobe, Katsina, and Enugu States.

The Inspector General of Police, therefore, urges all citizens to be law abiding during and after the elections even as he assures that all necessary security arrangements have been emplaced to ensure they exercise their franchise unhindered. He also urges the general public to contact the Nigeria Police Force Headquarters via 08033440189 (DIG Operations), 08033027731 (AIG FEDOPS), and 08034040439 (CP Elections), the ‘NPF Rescue Me App’ on Android and ios, and via the NPF Rescue Me Emergency Toll-free line on 08031230631, to request emergency security response. Similarly, other election situation room numbers which have been shared on Nigeria Police social media platforms will be repeatedly released by concerned State Police Commands for necessary emergency contact.

CSP OLUMUYIWA ADEJOBI, mnipr, mipra,
FORCE PUBLIC RELATIONS OFFICER,
FORCE HEADQUARTERS,
ABUJA.

April 14, 2023