The Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC), Sokoto Zonal Office in collaboration with the FBI, recorded a major breakthrough with its arrest on 29 August, of one Emmanuel Adedeji Oluwatosin, who is on the wanted list of the FBI.
In a press statement, the Head, Media and Publicity, Wilson Uwujaren emphasised that the Zonal Head, Abdullahi Lawal, while parading the suspect in Sokoto on Thursday, explained that he was arrested in Kaduna. Items recovered from his residence include two cars; Mercedes Benz E550, Mercedes Benz C450, an IPhone, laptops, modem and SIM cards.
Lawal added that the suspect and his accomplices both in Nigeria and overseas, acquired retirement account information (RAI) and personal identifiable information (PII) of multiple persons, which they fraudulently used to wire funds into newly created business bank accounts tied to the fraudulently created business. The proceeds were then converted into crypto currency. He said preliminary investigation had so far revealed that about N 1, 437, 889,157.15 passed through the suspect’s accounts and the commission has also traced the sum of N70, 000,000, he invested somewhere. Efforts are on to recover the money.
In a related development, Lawal said the Commission has arrested a wanted suspect, Muzakkir Muhammad, through a sister agency, in connection with an alleged case of obtaining money under false pretenses and production of fake currencies. He said the suspect was reported by one of his victims, Abdullahi Ibrahim after he had defrauded another victim, Samaila Sani, a Bureau de Change operator to the tune of $33,850. Also paraded are four Sokoto local government officials who defrauded civil servants on the payroll of State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB) by deducting irregular amount of monies from their salaries since 2013. The suspects are: Ishaka Abdullahi (education secretary), Abdullahi Idris (deputy education secretary), Abdullahi Dadi (cashier), and Idris Wamabai (accountant).