Abuja — The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission has arrested a former student of the Igbinedion University, Edo State, Okoro Osagie Victor, who is an ardent member of the Christ Embassy Church for allegedly defrauding foreigners to the tune of $96, 607 through the internet.

The 23-year-old former Chemical Engineering student, who dropped out of university in 2004 due to what he called 'family issues', was picked up by operatives of the commission in Benin City following a petition by a regional compliance officer with MoneyGram International, who suspected that the large number of foreign ladies, mostly Americans and Germans, who have been wiring money to the fraudster were victims of fraud.

The suspicion was triggered by a communication with one of Victor's victims who told Money-Gram that she met the fraudster over the internet and that she has been sending him money because he claims that he wanted to set up a business.Further investigations revealed that Victor, was a serial marriage scammer. He has been fleecing his victims posing as Jerry Finger, a white British American expatriate working in Nigeria.

Apart from sending photograph of a successful white male with the assumed identity of a Jerry Finger to his victims and promising them marriage, he would also tell them that he was in Nigeria to execute a project and then demand for money from them, with a promise to refund them when he is paid for the project. Some fell for the gimmick and paid.

Before he was finally nabbed, a total of $96,607.95 had been remitted to him by several victims from the United States and Germany.

He collected the money through MoneyGram desk in five different banks: United Bank for Africa Plc, Bank PHB, Spring Bank and Equitorial Trust Bank, using a fake driver's licence with the name of Jerry Finger.

Upon arrest, he confessed to the crime, explaining that he usually deposited receipts from his heist in three accounts; a current, savings and domiciliary accounts with numbers 6028812305, 4018813554 and 9018800613 respectively with Zenith Bank. Victor claimed that he started scamming in 2007, three years after he dropped out of university. Before then, he had worked as bar man in two hotels in Benin City, Royal Marble Hotel and Ede Confectionaries.

He said he was forced to embrace internet fraud due to the pressure of fending for his family. And even when he devoted most of his time to fraud, Osagie still held regular jobs as a camouflage for his criminal endeavours, adding that he continued to work as Independent Field Advisor and Multilevel Marketer for ADIC Insurance in Benin.

However, the unusual thing about the suspect is that unlike other fraudsters who live a life of luxury and spend their money on women, cars and drinks, he lives a moderate lifestyle. He neither drinks, smoke nor womanises. To crown it all, more than 80 per cent of the proceeds of his heist were given to his church, Chris Oyakhilome's Christ Embassy as tithes and offerings. The suspect, who was picked up on October 23 and has since been admitted to administrative bail, will soon be charged to court.

Meanwhile, Chairman of the EFCC, Mrs. Farida Waziri, has charged Nigerian youths to take up the gauntlet in the fight against corruption in the country.

She made the call at the weekend when she received members of the National Youth Council of Nigeria in her office. Waziri, who was represented by the Head, Strategy and Re-Orientation Unit (SARU), Gabriel Aduda, said the youths should key into the fight against corruption as the future belongs to them.

Her words: "We are going to be working together to fight this scourge (corruption) that has eaten deep into the fabrics of our nation and has even begun to tamper with our national life because we have people dying from road accident because roads have not been built and money meant for that has been stolen. We have people dying from diseases that should have been cured because those drugs never got to the hospitals or they got to the hospitals and later disappeared.

"So, whether we like it or not, directly or indirectly, we have been affected by corruption".

In his remarks, the acting president of the National Youth Council of Nigeria, Deolu Sotade George, showered encomiums on Waziri and the Commission especially over the recent conviction of Chief Bode George by a Lagos High Court.

He said with the successful prosecution and conviction of Chief Bode George, former chairman of the Nigerian Ports Authority, Waziri has shown that she was determined to root out corruption from Nigeria.