Daily Independent (Lagos)
4 July 2009
Lagos — Long arm of the law has caught up with a 60-year old woman, Mrs. Grace Iroro, as she was on Thursday arraigned alongside two others before Justice Mufutau Olokooba of the Lagos High Court, Ikeja on a five-count charge bordering on conspiracy, forgery, uttering and attempt to obtain money by false pretences.
Other accused are Messrs Ayo Disu and Uzor Nnaji. Olokooba after taking their pleas ordered that they should be remanded in prison custody till July 8 when their case would come up for hearing.
According to a statement signed by Head, Media and Publicity, Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Femi Babafemi, the arraignment could have been done before, but Iroro jumped bail and it was not possible to arraign others without her. She was, the statement added, finally nabbed somewhere in Itire area of Lagos State last week.
The accused were first arrested at the premises of a new generation bank while trying to cash a cheque of N17 million purportedly for the purchase of a plot of land at Lekki. Acording to investigation report, Iroro and other members of her syndicate impersonated one Mr. Samuel Adetobi Sosanya, the rightful owner of Plot 2, Block 71, Lekki Peninsula Residential Scheme 1 and attempted to sell the land to a top official of a new generation bank in Victoria Island.
But the deal went awry when the banker mentioned the transaction to one of his friends as he was about to pay the money and the friend told him that he had just been duped over the same property. The statement further stated that the banker then alerted EFCC, adding that as the accused entered the bank to cash the cheque, they were arrested.
Upon arrest, they confessed that they actually forged the Certificate of Occupancy (C of O) presented to the prospective buyer of the property to convince him that the transaction was genuine. While Disu acted as Mr. Sosanya, Iroro impersonated Mrs. Sosanya.
Be the first to Write a Comment!
Copyright © 2009 Daily Independent. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.
