Chukwu –
Emeka Egbemude, one of the four suspects arrested by the operatives of Rapid
Response Squad of the Lagos State Police Command for tricking expensive phone
sellers to desolate locations and robbing them afterwards, has disclosed that
his father warned him not to use his house as a base for internet crime.
Egbemude,
22, a 200 level drop out of North American University, Cotonu, Benin Republic
was arrested on Wednesday last week in company of three other accomplices, who
were fingered in the shooting of a police officer, who attempted to arrest them
in one of their botched robbery operations.
The gang
leader, Wilfred Ehis, a Chemical Engineering graduate of University of Benin,
Benin City had in his confessional statement to police stated that his task as
the leader of the group was to source for expensive phone sellers on online
platforms, pose as a lawyer, order for expensive phones and accessories before
waylaying the delivery man and rob him of the consignment at a designated
location.
Egbemude,
confessed to the police that all he did since dropping out of school was to
pick fraud items for online fraudsters as well as put Ehis through on how to
carry out online fraud.
He added
that he had been lodging from one hotel and the other along with Ehis around
LASU – Igando area because his father barred he and his elder brother from
using his residence for as centre for online fraud.
According
to him “I dropped out of school not because I wasn’t brilliant but for my
inability to pay my school fees. And, since I returned to Nigeria, I started
online fraud and picking fraud items for online fraudsters in and out of
Nigeria”.
The first
picking job was for myself in 2016. Later, I did another job for a “yahoo boy”
which fetched me $400. I have been into online fraud before I entered school in
2011”.
He
continued “I have done a lot of transaction for boys including those that involved
me travelling out of the country. Everybody in the neighbourhood (Afolabi Bus
Stop, LASU – Isheri Road) knows the kind of job that I do.
I also
help “yahoo boys” to pick money, expensive wristwatches and rings. I go to bank
to pick up the money for them and I get my 10% or 15% commission on every
transaction. I have helped more than 50 boys doing that kind of transaction”.
“My
father got to know that I was into online fraud because he sees me carrying
laptops and heard me whenever I make calls to my victims and trying to sound
like an American.
He called
me and told me point blank that, I should never in my life use his residence
for such business. Since 2015, I have been moving with Ehis, lodging from one
hotel to the other in LASU – Igando Area”, he added.
Sources
disclosed that apart from being a very close associate of the ring leader of
the gang, Egbemude is always with Ehis all the time and he had dealings with
Nurudeen, alias Onyaebo, the notorious hit man of the group.
According
to Wilfred Ehis, Nurudeen has the two guns used by the gang for their
operations, and that he sneaked into Lagos through the creeks of Ogun whenever
they have operations.
Two of
the five victims of the group’s robbery, who identified themselves as Oluwaseyi
Sanwo – Sunday and Alabede Habib on interview said that the group used okada
for their operations with two guns.
They
added that Iyana school Bus Stop, along LASU – Iba Road have been areas where
they lured three of them to before dispossessing them of those consignments
Ehis posing as Barrister Deji ordered for.
The
suspect along with the gang leader, Wilfred Ehis and two others, Bright Eloho,
24 and Olanrewaju Kamilu, 33 has been transferred to Special Anti - Robbery
Squad, Ikeja, Lagos for further investigations.
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