Fraudsters who Were Paid N40,000 for a week old child

A 26-year-old woman, Chiamaka
Anusim, has disclosed that some
suspected fraudsters, operating at
Ajegunle area of Lagos State, asked
her to bring N40,000 in order to buy
a week-old baby.
Anusim said that the conmen told
her that the week-old baby would be
used to cleanse some imported
phones, which they wanted to give
her to sell. The Rapid Response
Squad (RRS) said it had arrested five
of the 15 suspected fraudsters.
They are Adeola Oladele (42), Friday
Philip (33), Israel Ibe (35), Oyewole
Thompson (30) and Onyebuchi
Godwin (20).
The suspects were arrested at Oko
Baba Sule, off Wilma Street, Olodi,
Apapa. RRS operatives recovered
several denominations of fake US
dollars and four mobile phones from
them.
Anusim said that a member of the
gang, Thompson, was the first to
hoodwink her.
She said: “I gave Thompson my ATM
card. He went to the nearest bank
and withdrew N40,000. The next day,
I went there, he collected my ATM
card again and withdrew N70,000.
“The third time I went for the phones
to be given to me, he collected
N60,000 from me. When I asked
further when he would give me the
products, he asked me to come with
another N40,000, a roll of white
handkerchief, a walking stick and
three live fowls.
“He said the items would be used to
do some rituals before the products
could be given to me. He said
N40,000 was to be used to procure a
week-old baby to concoct the
charm.”
It was gathered that the incident
occurred about 3pm. The RRS
operatives were said to have nabbed
the suspects while they were
carrying out their nefarious
activities.
RRS operatives swooped on them
and bundled them to their state
headquarters at Alausa, Ikeja for
interrogation. Thompson said it was
greed and unemployment that lured
them into the crime.
He said: “We’re 15 members and we
used to split ourselves into groups
whenever we wanted to go on
operation. We usually operate
around Boundary Market and
Marine Beach, all in Apapa.
Those are the places we look for
victims. “All we do is just to talk and
convince victims that we are
genuine.
We will ask them to bring some
Nigerian money, which we would
promise to either change into US
dollars or British pounds. Toronto is
the leader of our syndicate.
People like Ifeanyi, Emeka, Bobo and
Onyibo head different groups.