Notorious man inside Abuja prison masterminded multi- million Naira fraud

An inmate of the Kuje Maximum Prison, Abuja,
Ifeanyi Ezenwa, has been accused of
coordinating series of frauds, which netted
members of his syndicate millions of naira.
According to the Inspector-General Police
Special Intelligence Response Team, which burst
the syndicate, the members of the gang
specialised in defrauding their victims, especially
businessmen through the use of fake bank
alerts.
Ezenwa was described as a notorious fraudster,
who had defrauded car and auto spare parts
dealers in many states including the Federal
Capital Territory, Abuja.
A source at the IRT explained that the syndicate
operated by approaching traders intending to
buy goods from them.
The source said, “After negotiations, they would
ask their victims to forward their account
number in order to do a money transfer. They
would inform their victim that the transfer had
been made and the victim would receive an alert
to the effect. But when a victim goes to the
bank to confirm his balance, the money would
not be in the account.
“They did this mostly late on Fridays knowing
that banks do not work on weekends and the
victim may not be able to make any
confirmation in the banking halls.
“Usually, some victims would release the goods
to them. The leader of the gang who is in
prison, uses a smart phone that is connected to
the internet and browses through online retail
sites like OLX, JiJi and Jumia, where he
connects with people who wants to sell their
valuables especially cars, chatting with them via
Whatsapp.”
It was learnt that when he buys a vehicle,
usually very expensive ones, he ensures that he
his dealing with rightful owner of the vehicle and
he would send members of his syndicate to
verify the real state of the vehicle. He then
proceed to use the same fake banking alert
method to swindle the victim.
The police said the syndicate had defrauded
their various victims of expensive vehicles such
as Mercedes G Wagon, Hummer, Toyota
Highlander SUVs.
Their activities became bad to the point that
some victims wrote petitions to the Inspector-
General of Police, Ibrahim Idris, who directed the
Abba Kyari-led IRT to track down the syndicate,
adding that their investigation led them to a
house in Abuja, where the G Wagon, Hummer,
Honda Odyssey, and a Honda ‘End of
Discussion’.
One of their victims, Mohammed Saleke, a car
dealer in Abuja, explained that Ezenwa swindled
him of a Mercedes G Wagon worth N7m, which
was on sale in his stand. According to him,
Ezenwa sent a man to his car stand, who
negotiated price and took a photograph of the
vehicle which was sent to the inmate.
Saleke said, “My boy, Obinna, was the one
dealing with them and when they agreed to our
price. They took my account number and went
to the bank to withdraw the money. The insisted
on transferring the money to my Diamond Bank
account. When I gave it to them, I received an
alert after one hour and I called them to come
and collect their vehicle. That was on a Friday,
but by Monday when I went to the bank to
check my account, I discovered there was no
money paid in it.
“When I received the alert, it had my previous
balance in it and the total money was balanced.
I wondered how he was able to get access into
my account. This incident happened in
November 2016 and I have been looking for the
vehicle.”
The police said the suspects would be charged
to court soon while Ezenwa would also be
charged for another round of fraud.