A suspect fraudster has reportedly confessed his role and the amount of money he got from the ₦7.3M fraud in Ondo state. The suspect identified as Adegoke Olaotan popularly known as Abounsi from Ondo town, confessed that he got the total sum of ₦620,000 from his victim—the money he further explained was enabled him buy maternity needs when his wife was pregnant in 2017.
Adegoke Olaotan
The suspect along with others allegedly scammed their victim, Jayeola Adeola, in their shrines at different locations in Ondo town.
Adeola, who claimed that he lost about seven million and three hundred thousand Naira to the fraudsters within the space of three month, starting from June 2017, said he was a coordinator of marketers of GNLD’s products when he fell to their hands through a GSM recharge card pin sent to his phone line by the fraudsters.
In an interview with Omo Edema, Jayeola explained, “ In June 2017, I received a text message on my phone. When I opened it, it looked like a recharge card pin and with a short note that read ‘Fayemi sell this card and use the money for your transport fare home.’ I ignored the message because I had no body with such a name among my family members.
“As I got to my office on the following day, I discovered a missed call on my phone, so I thought the call had come in when I was on bike to the office hence I called it back. When the call was picked up, it was the voice of an elderly man I heard. The man was thanking me that they mistakenly sent a recharge card to me yesterday and that he discovered I didn’t load the card even after many hours. And I said to him that it was normal to do so because I knew it was a mistake. The old man started praying for me. And I told him he did not need to be praying for me on that because it was a normal thing. So he cut the call.”
Jayeola said the elderly man called him back a few minutes later, saying he had been praying for him because of his honesty.
“The man called me back after a few minutes, telling me he has been praying for me because of my honesty. He said I should go and buy salt and use it for prayer after which I should go and give alms to the beggars. And he told me to call him back when I am through with the prayers which I did. I was not suspecting anything wrong because I did not expect any elderly person to involve in dirty things”, Jayeola said.
Jayeola explained further that their conversations had continued in that trend until they told him he would need to come to Ondo town to wave off an evil upon his life in a prayer before it would be too late for him. He said he rushed to Ondo in fear where he was reportedly received in a street adjacent King’s Palace—the place he met with the acclaimed elderly man for the first time. The same place they collected the first ₦400,000 from him through money transfer.
The money totaling up to ₦7.3M he allegedly took to them was reportedly belonging to the GNLD products’ marketers working under him.
On his own part in the fraudulent activities, Adegoke Olaotan said it was a fraudster friend simply identified as Alex that brought Jayeola to him. He said Alex with another person had already been defrauding the victim. But Alex later brought the victim to him because he was dissatisfied in his former co-fraudster on the ground that the former was not transparent enough in the sharing of the fraudulent proceeds made from the victim so far.
“… though, I didn’t know how much Alex had collected from Jayeola before bringing him to me, but when Alex brought him to me, I made ₦620,000 from him. Alex later took Jayeola from me to my younger brother, Adegoke Sunday to continue with him. I don’t know the amount my younger brother also made from him”, Olaotan confessed.
The victim had earlier explained to Omo Edema that they took him to different locations and shrines in Ondo and in Òkè-Igbó respectively. He added that on many occasions they gave him black powdered concoction to eat with several horrific warnings that on the day he would tell anybody about his experience with them he would either die or run mad.
“I couldn’t tell anybody. In fact, they took charge of my life to the point that if I wanted to sleep with my wife at home I would first call them to ask if it was safe for me to do so. Sometimes they would say I should go ahead and many other times they would forbid me from doing do.
“I didn’t know I had be hypnotized by them until when they asked me to provide them with a hunchbacked man within a few days, threatening me that I would die mysteriously if I fail to get one. I didn’t even know what a hunchback man mean, yet I was looking for it until I got to a hill in Ado-Ekiti where I met a group of people praying.”, The victim said.
According to him, it was at the prayer that a prophecy concerning his situation came up, telling him he was in a mysterious captivity.
“I joined the prayer without knowing why I joined them. It was there that a prophecy came to me that I was in a heavy evil bondage. They prayed for me and warned me not go back to where I came from. And that I should go straight to my hometown.
“When I got to my hometown, my mother took me to a church where I was given days of fasting and praying. It was after the prayer I got back to my senses and discovered I was in a big debt.
“Immediately, I went out from the presence of the man of God to a nearby river—I wanted to commit suicide. But the man quickly ordered that some youths should pursue me and bring me back. “When they brought me back, he warned me sternly not to let the fraudsters know that I have been loosed from their entanglement. That I should continue to play along with them in order to get them arrested.”, Jayeola explained.
According to the victim, the fraudsters were later arrested and brought to the Police Area Command Ondo where he alleged the case was not well treated by the police.
He later wrote and transferred the case to SARS in Akure the Ondo State capital.
“Why the case was being treated at the SARS, one of the people whose money I had taken to the fraudsters also brought a case against me at the Police State Headquarters, Akure. All efforts made to convince her and the investigating police officers on what had happened to me proved abortive. I was eventually remanded at Olokuta prison custody, Akure in January 2018.”, the victim lamented.
Jayeola, who expressed a big disappointment in the way police handled the matter, said police had not been able to come up with anything meaningful on the matter even after many months.
Credit; Omo Edema/Mercy Dabs Communications