The Lagos State Police Command has
arrested three suspected fraudsters identified as Kola Osho, Oyedepo
Adesola and Kola Ademola, who allegedly specialize in
withdrawing money from people’s bank accounts using dud cheques.
According to
Punch,
the police said the suspects
usually obtained the cheques from people who are experts
in stealing cheque books from unsuspecting people, then they will
present the cheques to their insider in the bank, who will dubiously
verify the account holder and the signature before the money
could be paid out. Continue...
The men were arrested at the
Pipeline area of Abule-Egba, a suburb in Lagos following a tip off.
While Oyedepo Adesola and Kola Ademola were arrested on Wednesday, July
23, Kola Osho was
arrested the following day July 24th. They were found with two dud
cheques belonging to a commercial bank, and
some forged letter-head documents bearing ‘Ministry of Finance &
Economic Development'.
In his confessional statement, 57 year old Osho who hails from
Ado-Ekiti, Ekiti State, said his desire to pursue a better life abroad made him get involved in the criminal act of bank fraud.
"I was formerly doing supplying
and clearing business. I wanted to use the documents the police found
on me to process a visa to the United Kingdom. I got the forged
documents from the Internet. Ademola gave the cheques to me and I
returned them because I could not cash them. He is like a son to me as I
am his father’s friend. So, I sent back all the businesses he brought,
because I did not want any trouble. I used to have insiders in the
banks, but I have cut off from them all. I knew I cheated when I got the
forged documents to process my visa, but I did not have any option. It
also did not work out.” he said
Another
suspect, Kola Ademola, 33, who hails from Ikire, Osun
State claims to be a graduate of Business Administration and runs an
Educational center. He said he got the cheque books from a certain
Samson he met at Obalende in Lagos and that they were yet to make any
money from
the cheque books, a situation he described as unfortunate.
“I am an Educational
Consultant. That is what I do for a living. I also enroll pupils for
final-year examination. Last year, I met one boy called Samson who
stayed in Obalende, and he was the one who got the cheques and brought
them to me. I don’t know how he got them, but they
were original cheques. We delivered these to the banks insiders who
worked on them, and brought out the cash. But because of the present
cashless policy, we can only withdraw less than N100,000 which would not
require the confirmation from the signatories. This is the third cheque I would be
bringing to Mr. Osho, but he said he does not have any insider in that
particular bank. On the first cheque, he said the account did not
contain much money. The second cheque too was not successful. So, we
have not made any money from these deals. It is just unfortunate.” he said
The
last suspect, Oyedepo Adesola, aged 36, on the other hand claims to be
innocent and was only on a visit to Mr Osho's office when the police
arrested him.
“I hold a Higher National
Diploma from a polytechnic in Oyo State. I studied Accounting and
finished in 2007. I do not know what the police are talking about. I
simply came to Osho to transact a business, and they got me arrested. I
am innocent.” he said
Source: Punch
