From Molly Kilete, Abuja
A 35-year-old man who claims to be trading in foreign exchange has landed in police custody after duping his clients of about N500 million.
The suspect, Abubakar Shehu Bappa, who has been in the fake forex business for over 10 years now, specialised in collecting huge amounts of naira from businessmen with a promise to exchange the monies to American dollar.
But rather than keep to his promises, Abubakar ends up threatening them to the extent of killing them if they dare call to ask for their money.
Not only that, he blocked them from his phone book when their calls become overbearing and then relocate from Abuja to other states to flex to ease off tension.
To lure his unsuspecting customers, Abubakar ensured that his first and second business transactions go on smoothly without hindrance and suspicion to gain their trust to bring more money.
It is after gaining their trust that he goes to show the stuff he is made of. Thinking that he is a honest man, these customers pump in more money in the hope of getting it back within days, but before they know what is happening they have been duped and all efforts to get back their monies end up with threats.
When they could no longer bear his continuous threats to their lives and they can not get him on phone, some of the businessmen petitioned to the Inspector General of Police(IGP), Usman Baba, who assigned the matter to the Intelligence Response Team to investigate.
Upon getting the IGP’s directives, the IRT operatives swung into action by making contact with Abubakar and inviting him to come over to their office to explain his own side of the story, which he agreed to.
Surprisingly, Abubakar instead of showing up at the IRT office as promised, he got an order from the court baring the IRT operatives from inviting him and arresting him.
He did not stop there, he also got another order from the court baring the Department of State Services(DSS), and other security agencies from arresting him over the matter.
To ensure that he is not arrested by personnel of the security agencies, Abubakar, installed powerful Close Circuit Television(CCTV), which he uses to monitor around his home to evade arrest each time the security operatives come to invite him.
An indigene of Kano State, Abubakar who had his early education in Kano and later moved to Malaysia for his university education, evaded arrest for over one year.
But unknown to him, the IRT operatives who were on his trail did not give up as they continued to monitor him until they were able to arrest him after nearly two years.
He was arrested somewhere in Abuja, where he had gone to sign some documents to collect a loan from a bank.
Upon his arrest, he was taken to the IRT office where he was presented with the petitions written against him by his victims and he immediately confessed to the crime and blamed his inability to get them the foreign exchange to the high rate of the dollar.
Married with two children, Abubakar, in an interview told Sunday Sun, of how he was doing well in the foreign exchange business until the dollar skyrocketed to where he lost almost everything.
He said he actually started doing business about 10 years ago and delved into foreign exchange through one of his friends who owns a Bureau de Change outlet.
According to him, business was doing well until he began to experience loses and was unable to pay back the huge sums of monies he collected from his clients.
The suspect who said he collected monies from about eight of his customers, said “the first amount I collected was N87 million and then N72 million, N44 million, N135 million, N20 million, N10 million and N50 million, respectively”.
Asked what he did with the huge amounts, he said he used them to buy the dollar quite alright but at a very higher rate and was unable to pay them back.
He, however, said that he was able to settle many others, “otherwise the money would have been more that what we are talking about.”
On why he got a court order baring the police and the DSS from arresting him, he said it was actually his lawyer that did that and not him.
Asked why he threatened to kill his clients when they call to ask for their money and blocked their telephone calls, he said he was afraid and didn’t know what to tell them since he does not have a dime to pay them.
Also asked why he has been in hiding for nearby two years and mounted CCTV to monitor activities around his house, especially those of the police and security agencies, Abubakar, said that he put the security measures in place to prevent criminals from attacking his home as he had been robbed in the past.
The suspect who said that he regretted his actions, confessed that he does not have up to N1 million in his account at the moment, but hopes to get a loan of N800 million from his bank to offset his debts.
He said that he was on the loan matter before he was arrested.
He expressed the hope that if he eventually gets the loan, he would be able to pay back everyone he is owing and get off police hook.
