Two Nigerian undergraduates and six others have been arrested by officers of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) in Lagos for defrauding unsuspecting Nigerians and foreigners for several years.
The suspects were arrested at their operational base located at 1004 Housing Estate, a highbrow residential area sited at Victoria Island in the commercial capital city of Lagos.
One of the suspects, 25-year-old Hope Olusegun, from Okene, Kogi State, located in the Middle Belt region of Nigeria, said he is a computer science student at the Kuala Lumpur Metropolitan University, Malaysia. Together with his other accomplices, he was arrested for allegedly perpetrating fraud and internet scam.
The EFCC officers who carried out the arrest said the commission received a petition concerning the alleged criminal activities of Olusegun and his accomplices.
According to the petition, the accused scammers prior to their arrest were using the 1004 Housing Estate residence as their operational base from where they carried out their fraudulent activities which include obtaining money from unsuspecting victims using false pretences and forgery.
According to the EFCC, after receiving the petition, its commission’s operatives besieged Olusegun’ s apartment where they discovered and confiscated several items they believe were being used for the fraudulent activities.
Items recovered include laptops, iPads, phones, travelling documents, cheque books, flash drives, Internet modem, and three cars – a Mercedes Benz Jeep, One 4-Matic Mercedes Benz Car and a Range Rover Sport SUV.
When asked about the ownership of the automobiles, Olusegun said they were not his. According to him, the cars belong to someone who is currently staying in the United Kingdom.
EFCC operatives also downloaded more than 80 implicating documents from the laptops recovered from Olusegun, while the commission is endeavoring to nab other members of the syndicate who are currently at large.
Another member of the syndicate, Tunde Wasiu Sodiq, who is also an undergraduate student, was arrested by the EFCC operatives at the gang’s base.
