Andrew Ahiante
27 January 2003
Lagos — Committee on Financial Crimes parades a journalist for swindling a local firm, two others for impersonating Alhaji Umaru Shinkafi and his son to rip-off the American
As the effort to rid the nation of financial crimes waxes stronger, the National Committee on Financial Crimes, penultimate week paraded two suspects arrested for their alleged involvement in Advance Fee Fraud aka 419.
Mr. Eze Udu Anakwe, an indigene of Anambra State and his brother, Kingsley Nnamdi Anakwe, still at large, were said to have impersonated Alhaji Umaru Shinkafi, a chieftain of the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP), and his son, Sani, to dupe an American businessman, Mr. Milton Bernox, of the sum of $5.5 million.
Another paraded suspect, Mr. Bolaji Bode-Thomas, of Plot 17/18, Allen Avenue, Ikeja, Lagos, was alledged to have swindled Seafood, a private company in Lagos, of N3.7 million between April and May, 2002.
He was said to have deceived the company into parting with the money for him on the pretence that he would sell his plot of land at the Government Reservation Area (GRA), Ikeja, later discovered to belong to the Lagos State Government.
Parading the suspects, Chairman, Committee on Financial Crimes, and Commissioner of Police (CP), Special Fraud Unit, Milverton, Ikoyi, Lagos, Mr. Charles I. Akaya, explained that syndicates of the Advance Fee Fraud comprise foreigners outside the shores of the country, and Nigerians, explaining that the nature of their network make investigations difficult.
Bernox was said to have been contacted by one Mr. Paul Oniama, who posed as a director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) with the power to make the American go into the lucrative oil business.
As they intensified their efforts to convince Bernox of the genuiness of the deal, they invited him to London, where he met one Mr. Robert, who later introduced him to one Alhaji Sani, who posed as a representative of the Nigerian High Commission in Britain
The deal, Akaya said investigation further revealed, began in the year 2000, culminating in series of meetings during which Alhaji Sani at different times collected $300,000, totalling $5.5 million by the end of 2002, for the purpose of facilitating the oil business from Bernox.
The anti-Financial Crimes Committee boss said they were on the trail of a purported Nigerian chief, an accomplice in the fraud, whose name was yet to be ascertained. Bernox's son who was known to the Nigerian chief, living in Kent, United Kingdom, took Bernox to meet with the chief.
Obvious to Bernox that he had been duped, he was said to have demanded for his money but the fraudsters did not give in. They instead, continued to post him, deceiving and deriding him. They were said to have at a point given Bernox a $7million fake cheque of the Central Bank of Nigerian (CBN).
Bernox, who discovered the cheque to be fake when he flew into the country to attempt to draw it, narrated his ordeal to Central Bank officials, who took him to the office of the Financial Crimes Committee, which immediately evolved strategies to round up members of the syndicate.
Bernox was advised to play low, go into renewed discussions with them and accept their terms of trade. He did. Bernox was later met by one of them, who claimed to be Alhaji Umaru Shinkafi, promising to help him to cash the cheque if he pays him $2 million and another $130,000 for what he called poverty alleviation fees.
Bernox offered to pay $50,000 on the advise of the State Security Service (SSS).
They consequently agreed to meet at the Ikoyi Hotel, where he was to make the payment to one of them who posed as the son of Alhaji Shinkafi.
Luck, however, ran out for the purported Alhaji Umaru Shinkafi's son when he was picked up by locking security agents at the Ikoyi Hotel Venue of the meeting slated late into the night.
Answering questions from journalists, the fraudster, who gave his name as Eze Udu Anakwe, said his father was a herbalist. He said one Christopher, who posed as Alhaji Shinkafi, sent a message to their village in Anambra State to complain that his wife was having miscarriage, saying that he was subsequently sent to deliver medicine to Christopher for his wife.
Christopher, who later came home to inform the family of his wife's delivery, he said, asked him to follow him to Enugu to deliver some money. At Enugu, he said he lodged in a hotel, bought him some suits and other paraphnelia to make him look like a successful businessman and took him to the airport, where he flew to Lagos, saying that he was asked to pass through CMS and then to Ikoyi Hotel, where he was to meet a white businessman.
"I was asked to introduce myself as Musa Shinkafi, son of Alhaji Umaru Shinkafi", he continued.
Asked how they came about the businessman and other things they were to do with him, Eze said only his brother, Nnamdi Anakwe, now late, knew him, explaining that he never met him even though they regularly communicated on phone.
Eze Udu, 21, confessed to having only primary education just as he told reporters that his relatives live in Ajegunle in Ajeromi/Ifelodun Local Government Area of Lagos.
He insisted that he never knew the details of the deal until he was arrested by the police.
On his part, Boalji Bode-Thomas, who claimed to be a journalist and a former press secretary to a one time civilian governor, said he was bundled to the press conference by the SSS, arguing that the allegations against him were false as he does not know any company called Seafood.
However, calling on all Nigerians to help government in the effort to stem the 419 menace, Akaya said the act was compounding the nation's woes as investors were shying away from coming to do meaningful business in the country.
He said legal processes for the prosecution of Eze Udu and Bolaji had began, stressing that the law would follow its due process. Financial Crimes, as advance fee fraud, he said, carry grave punishments, ranging from 15 years to life imprisonment.
He advised people to always cross check business proposals before jumping at them as they could turn out to be fake, revealing that the agency handled 62 of such fraudulent cases as at November, 2002.
The agency, he said, was faced with the dearth of high technology equipment that could stand those of culprits, complaining that to keep a tab on them was no mean task.
In the wake of government's harsh legislation against such vices as drug peddling and trafficking and armed robbery, many youths had taken to the international act of defrauding institutions, particularly corporate businesses and individuals from the mid 1980s.
The act had assumed such international dimension that the international community not only raised alarm over the disturbing nature of the menace, it dealth severe blow on the image of the country and terribly shook the confidence of the investing world on doing any business with Nigerians and the country.
Always transacted through mails, telephones and lately emails, with the computer and the internet increasingly assuming the centre stage in the country's activities, mails, as this recently sent to a target of one of such syndicates, are commonly received by business executives, the wealthy and even government institutions.
Targetted at a would be victim, it read: "From the desk of Dr. Franc Kouanda, Bill and Exchange Manager, African Development Bank (ADB), Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, West Africa.
"Dear, I am the Manager of Bill and Exchange at the Foreign Remittance Department of the African Development Bank (ADB). I am writing you following the impressive information about you through one of my friends, who runs a consultancy firm in your country. He assured me of your capability and reliability to champion this business opportunity."
"In my department, we discovered an abandoned sum of $18.5million (US dollars) in an account that belongs to one of our foreign customers, who died along with his entire family in a fatal plane crash on 15th November, 1998. Since we got information about his death, we have been expecting his next-of-kin to come over and claim his money because we cannot release it unless somebody applies for it as his next-of-kin or a relation to the deceased, as it is our banking guidelines, but unfortunately, we learnt that all his supposed next-of-kins or relations died alongside with him in the plane crash, leaving nobody behind to make the claim...
"It is therefore upon this discovery that I and other officials in my department have now decided to make this business proposal to you and to release the money to you as the next-of-kin or relation to the deceased for safety and subsequent disbursement since nobody is coming for it and we don't want this money to go into the Bank's treasury as an unclaimed bill...
"We agree that 30 percent of this money will be for you as a foreign partner in respect to the provision of a foreign account, 10 percent will be set aside for expenses incured during the business and 60 percent would be for me and my colleagues. Thereafter, I and my colleagues will visit your country for the disbursement according to the percentages indicated.
"Therefore, to enable the immediate transfer of this fund to you as arranged, you must apply first to the bank as the relation or next-of-kin of the deceased, indicating your bank's name, your bank account number, your private telephone and fax numbers for easy and effective communication and location.
"Upon receipt of your reply, I will send to you through fax or email the text of the application. I will not fail to bring to your notice that this transaction is hitch-free and that you should not entertain any atom of fear as all required arrangements have been made for the transfer. You should contact me immediately as soon as you receive this letter. Trusting to hear from you immediately. N.B.: My intention of writing you through email is because I believe it is very confidential".
While many people within and outside the country have fallen victims of the syndicates through mails as this, the other opinion is that such telephone calls and letters only appeal to those who equally have inordinate desire for wealth.
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