A 29 year-old warder with the old Abeokuta Prisons, Ibara, Abeokuta,
Ogun State, Joseph Emmanuel is at present in the custody of the Economic
and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, for allegedly assisting a prison
inmate in carrying out fraudulent financial transactions, as well as
using the name and documents of an illiterate taxi driver, to open a
First Bank account for the inmate.
The suspect allegedly assisted the
inmate whom he called 'Ora' to open the account, using the name of one
taxi driver in his neighbourhood called Monsuru Ogunsina Adeogun".
He took the step after he rejected the entreaties of the inmate to avail him of his account number.
Having
made a promise to help the inmate with an account number, Emmanuel
threw caution and his work ethics to the wind and went ahead to open an
account, in the name of Adeogun, a father of four.
Investigations
showed that, after filling out the account opening documents and
observing all account opening formalities Emmanuel received the
withdrawal booklet and an ATM card to the account.
He handed the
withdrawal booklet to Adeogun and according to him, "I took the ATM card
to Ora (the inmate) and I helped him make three withdrawals from the
account, until the fourth time when the ATM machine rejected the card
and I called Adeogun to bring the withdrawal booklet, and it was that
Tuesday (March 5, 2014) that Adeogun was arrested at the bank and I came
down to EFCC to see him the following day and I was also detained for
my involvement".
During investigation, it was gathered that the same inmate had previously convinced one Ogunnariwo Mary, a student of Tai Solarin University of Education, Ijebu Ode, to help him open an account with her name.
According to Mary, "I went to the
Abeokuta prisons to seek for an Industrial Attachment placement, but was
told that I have to go to the Head Office, but before I could leave, an
inmate who introduced himself as 'Timilehin' approached me and pleaded
with me to help him open an account for him with my name so that I can
help him withdraw money whenever his family pays in money into the
account".
She said she went ahead to open the account in
her name, and helped the inmate to make several withdrawals, which were
always collected by different men who managed to show up each time she
got a call from the inmate to go and make a withdrawal.
This, she
said, happened between December 2013 and March 5, 2014, when she was
also arrested because the ATM machine rejected the card and she went
into the banking hall to lodge a complaint and to make the withdrawal
with a withdrawal slip.
Both Adeogun and Mary Ogunnariwo were arrested the same day and at the same bank and brought to the office of the EFCC together.
The suspects will be charged to court as soon as investigations are concluded.
*Well
personally, I do not think this is what the EFCC should be doing. There
are tougher cases out there to crack. I mean this story sounds too
trivial to be associated with the EFCC*
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