IF 37-year-old Tope Oni could turn the hand of the clock back, he would have wished he never knew a man called Mr Kayode Adebayo (37). This is because the man, Adebayo, who is currently on the run from law enforcement agents in Oyo State Police Command, allegedly introduced Oni into the crime that has landed him in police net.
The stock in trade of Oni and his runaway partner was to look for vehicles put up for sale, tender a fake bank draft which would be given to the vehicle owner. After the payment of the fake bank draft into the account of the vehicle owner, a fake bank alert would be received, which would make the car owner believe the payment and release the car, only to discover later that he had been conned.
Parading the suspect at the police headquarters on Thursday, July 9, the Commissioner of Police in Oyo State, Muhammad Musa Katsina, told Crime Reports that the Ambush Squad of the command recently busted the ring of the two-man syndicate through what he tagged “high level intelligence”.
“The suspect, Tope Oni, resident of Opeyemi Street, Ilorin, and Kayode Adebayo, also from Ilorin, who had successfully stolen exotic vehicles worth millions of naira from auto dealers in many parts of Ibadan, walked into the web of the Ambush Squad when they attempted to defraud one Monsuru Buhari, a car dealer at Dandaru area, Mokola, Ibadan in June.”
The police commissioner said Oni was arrested while Adebayo escaped, adding that a duplicate copy of a GTB deposit slip with the sum of N2.7million was recovered from the suspect.
In an interview with Crime Reports, Oni confessed to the crime, saying, “it is true that I tendered the fake bank draft of N2.7million to buy a car. I am from Kogi State but I live in Ilorin Kwara State. I am also a graduate of Business Administration from University of Ilorin. I finished in 2002.
“I worked with a haulage company. I was introduced to fraud by one Mr. Kayode Adebayo. It happened that I was looking for a job after my boss died. I met Adebayo at a mechanic workshop in Ilorin and we had discussions. He asked if I could drive and I said yes.
“We exchanged numbers, and he called me about a week after. He asked me to meet him somewhere and when I got to him, he said he would want me to drive him to Ibadan. He said he was going there for business. He had earlier told me that he was a contractor and was into car sales.
“Actually, he didn’t divulge much information about himself to me; I did not even know where he was living. And I did not want to probe into his life. He usually called me and I would meet him at a point.
“We drove round Ibadan and a Toyota Sienna car driving along Bodija area. It had ‘for sale’ and a phone number posted on it. Mr Adebayo called the number and the man stopped. He inspected the Sienna bus and discussed with the owner. We went back to Ilorin afterwards. This was in September 2014.
“Three days after, he called me again that we would go to Ibadan. He showed me a bank draft of N850,000, saying we were going to purchase that Sienna. In Ibadan, he met with the owner and we went to a new generation bank to pay it into the owner’s account. He did not follow us; he just instructed me to go with the Sienna owner. He warned me not to go to the bank where the draft originated from if I was ever asked to do so.
“After depositing the draft, the man released the vehicle. All the while, Adebayo was monitoring with phone calls. I got to him and we returned to Ilorin. He drove his own car while I drove the Sienna. He took it from me when we got to Ilorin. About five days after, he gave me N100,000, saying that it was my share of the profit he made from the sale of the Sienna bus.
“He was ill for about two months so we did not see. In the first week of June, 2015, we came to Ibadan again and scouted round for cars. On the way, he opened up to me a little bit by saying that most times, the bank drafts he gives car owners were not original but cloned. He then told me that if there was any problem during interaction with owners, I should call him and say: ‘Olorun wa’ (there is God). His usual targets were cars parked or put up for sale.
“He saw a Toyota Camry (muscle) at Mokola area. He told the owner that he was working in the Oyo State Deputy Governor’s office. He had changed his car number plate to reflect the status. The car was to be sold for N2.2 million but he gave a fake bank draft of N2.7 million, telling the car owner that he would come back to collect N500,000 to share among his colleagues in the office.
“I followed the owner to the bank to pay but we could not complete transaction because he had a savings account, so he had to open a current account. The process could not be completed that day and the man refused to release the car until he was sure that the money had entered the new account. So, we agreed to do a photocopy of the deposit slip. I was surprised when police came to arrest me.”
Katsina said that the suspect would be charged to court at the completion of investigation.
No comments:
Post a Comment