Kemisola Oye
MR LATEEF BELLO, an alleged victim of a whopping sum of One Million British Pounds (£1,000,000.00) fraud said to have been perpetrated by a seven-man fraud syndicate on Monday 3rd July 2023 narrated to Justice Ramon A. Oshodi of a Lagos State Special Offences Court sitting in Ikeja how the alleged fraud was carried out.
It will be recalled that the Lagos Zonal Command of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) had on 15 December 2022, re-arraigned the first to sixth defendants with the seventh defendant then at large. The seventh defendant, Sanlabiu Teslim was however produced in court at the resumed hearing on Monday, 3rd July 2023, necessitating re-arraignment on an amended three-count charge filed against them by the anti-graft agency.
The defendants including Morufu, Alaka, Ajayi and Ajisegiri were first arraigned on 3rd February 2022 before Justice Oluwatoyin Taiwo of the same court, with the others listed as being at large. However, the trial could not be concluded before the retirement of Justice Taiwo. This necessitated the reassignment of the case file to Justice Oshodi, even as the EFCC intensified its efforts to apprehend the other suspected fraudsters.
Morufu Adewale (aka Gbegulerin Adelana), Omitogun Ajayi, Ajisegiri Abiodun, Abayomi Alaka (aka Dauda Usman Alashe), Taiwo Ahmed, Raufu Raheem and Sanlabiu Teslim are alleged to have conspired and defrauded a couple of One Million British Pounds (£1,000,000.00) under the guise of spiritual cleansing of their family.
The offences border on obtaining money by pretence contrary to Section 1(1)(a) and 1(3) of the Advance Fee Fraud and Other Fraud Related Offences Act 2006, and conspiracy to obtain money by pretence contrary to Section 410 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State 2011.
Count one reads: “Morufu Yahaya Adewale, Omitogun Ajayi, Ajisegiri Abiodun, Abayomi Kamaldeen Alaka, Taiwo Olamilekan Ahmed, Raufu Wale Raheem and Sanlabiu Owolabi Teslim between May and July 2018 at Lagos within the Ikeja Judicial Division obtained the total sum of One Million Great Britain Pounds (£1,000,000.00) from Dr. and Dr. (Mrs) Lateef Oladimeji Bello for the purpose of conducting prayers for spiritual cleansing of the family and that the money will be refunded after the prayers within one week, which pretence you knew to be false.”
Count three reads: “Morufu Yahaya Adewale, Omitogun Ajayi, Ajisegiri Abiodun, Abayomi Kamaldeen Alaka, Taiwo Olamilekan Ahmed, Raufu Wale Raheem and Sanlabiu Owolabi Teslim between August and September 2018 at Lagos within the Ikeja Judicial Division obtained the total sum of One Hundred and Seventy-Five Million Naira (N175,000,000.00) only from Dr. and Dr. (Mrs) Lateef Oladimeji Bello for the purpose of conducting spiritual prayers for spiritual cleansing of their son and the family and that the money will be refunded one week after the prayers which pretence you knew to be false.”
They pleaded “not guilty” to the charges.
During Monday 3rd July 2023 proceedings counsel for the EFCC, N. K. Ukoha, led the prosecution’s first witness, Lateef Bello, in evidence. Lateef Bello is one of the victims of the alleged fraud syndicate that specialised in the use of juju (traditional rituals and medicine) for cleansing from evil forces.
Mr Bello narrated how Sanlabiu led him to the fraudsters at a shrine located in the Igbogbo area of Ikorodu in Lagos State in a bid to carry out cleansing for his family.
He said: “As soon as I entered the place, I wasn’t myself. I thought he was taking me to an Islamic cleric, however, it turned out to be an herbalist.
“In fact, Omitogun Ajayi noticed it and said to me, ‘Focus on this place, do you know where Jesus Christ was born?’
“He now consulted his Osanyin at the shrine, and then he gave us a bill of about N230,000 that we need to buy some things like ram and so on, which I paid.
“He now said that I have to bring my wife, and that was the period my wife was preparing for retirement, that she will be the one to pray when they are done with their rituals.
“When my wife came, they gave us different concoctions to drink, and they made incantations.
“Omitogun was the main man, then he now said that the Osanyin said that we need to go and see their Baba in Ijebu-Igbo who will finalise the prayer for my son.
“A few days later, myself, my wife and my son, and Sanlabiu, my driver, and Omitogun Ajayi and one Alfa, who is one of them and currently at large, went to Ijebu-Igbo.
“When we got to Ijebu-Igbo, that was where we met Morufu Yahaya Adewale, who disguised so well like an elderly man of over 100 years old.
“He welcomed us and then took us to one room, and when we entered the room, there was a curtain from where he was communicating with us.
“He now told us the things we are going to do, and afterwards, he said they’ve finished with my son, and that we should come back in two days, that when we are coming we should buy a big ram.
“Two days later, myself, Omitogun Ajayi, the Alfa, Sanlabiu, and my driver, went there with the ram, which we bought at Ijebu-Ode, that we needed some other prayers for the family.
“When we got there, they slaughtered the ram and some other things, after which they said I should remove my dress and gave me a wrapper to cover myself.
“They now took me to one place, where they were boiling water, and I saw the water boiling and they poured the water on my head, but it was very cold.
“After this, they did the same thing to my wife and they said they were going to take us to another room in the same house; we knocked on the door, and we started hearing some noise of some women.
“They now opened the door, and immediately we entered the room using our back, we now saw about nine women wearing white clothes.
“They claimed to be white witches, and said that they were there to help us; they now said though they have finished with my son, that we have a lot of spiritual problems in my family and my extended family.
“They said during their investigation, that my wife will soon retire and that another bigger office was ahead of my wife and that we still need to do a lot of spiritual cleansing for the entire family in order for her to get there.
“They now demanded opo kan (translated to One Million in the English language) and it was my first time hearing that; emphasizing that it should have the picture of a woman and must be red.
“When we now got to the room where Yahaya was, he was the one that now interpreted that what the white witches meant was One Million British Pounds. And that, once we get the One Million Pounds, it will be put in a box, and that after one week, we are going to be given our money back, and then there will be an ornament under the money, which my wife will be expected to be on my wife, and they named it Oluomo.
“My lord, they were in total control of our senses,” he said.
“Before we left that day, Morufu Yahaya instructed Ahmed Taiwo to give us the account number of one Gbegulerin Adelana (the alias of Morufu Yahaya), that we needed to buy some things before the £1million and so demanded N1million which I paid into the account.
“They now said that those witches only drink the blood of pigeons, and so collected N200,000 to buy pigeons for those witches, and N10,000 for the cage as they said they’ll buy them at Sagamu.
“Omitogun kept assuring us that we were at the right place, that even Oshiomhole when he was about to leave office as governor of Edo State, that he brought the governor to see those white witches; that he initially took the Osanyin to Benin, and he also brought Obaseki, the current governor to the shrine.
“Apparently, they knew my wife was going to retire and she would get her gratuity and pension.”
According to him, the family, afterwards, raised £800,000, which was handed over to the syndicate.
He testified further that after the payment of the £800,000 cash, it was one story to another, in which they were asked to go to one river or the other for one ritual or the other and all the while they kept demanding more money from him.
“They insisted on collecting cash, and declined to take bank transfers,” he added.
According to him, during one of the rituals, unknown to him, the syndicate was recording them.
He told the court that in the course of the whole thing, he ran into debt, and only late in the day did he realise that he had been scammed.
“I later got a call from Abiodun Ajisegiri (third defendant), who claimed to be an investigative journalist,” he said.
He explained that Ajisegiri, who posed to be working with LTV and Radio Lagos, claimed to be in possession of the video clip of where we were engaging in rituals and that he was going to broadcast it to the whole world.
He said: “I tried to explain what happened to him and how we were defrauded of the sum of almost N675 million.
“He now said that he was going to investigate and that I should bring N300,000. I paid an initial N100,000 to his Ecobank account, and I later paid another N50,000.
“The day I paid the N50,000 I called his number to let him know, but he said he was at a meeting and that he would call me back.
“So later he called me and said that he was with those people and that they were demanding N50 million from us in order not to broadcast the clip. He now said if we can deposit N5million that these people can kill and they can kidnap us.”
Realising late that he had been scammed, he said that he approached the Special Fraud Unit of the Nigeria Police.
According to him, the case was not progressing at the SFU and someone advised him to move the case out of SFU and petition the EFCC if he wanted the case to progress.
He said: “That was how Sanlabiu was arrested being the first person to be arrested, being the man that took us to them, then Omitogun was arrested. Abiodun Ajisegiri was also arrested and the video clip was recovered from him. Morufu Yahaya too was arrested.”
While concluding his examination-in-chief, Mr Bello said: “The day we went to Ijebu-Ode and discovered that the £800,000 was no longer in the box, I called my wife to say there’s no money in the box, and there was no ornament (Oluomo).
“Immediately we got to Lagos, my wife called Alaka, who now said that we have been defrauded and that his share was N250 million and that if we love our life we should not report to anybody and move on with our life.”
Thereafter, Ukoha sought to tender in evidence the petition the victim wrote to the EFCC and the statement he gave to the EFCC.
There was no objection by Olalekan Ojo (SAN), counsel for the first, second, third, fourth and fifth defendants. A. Apanisile, counsel for the sixth defendant, and Olalekan Idowu, counsel for the seventh defendant also did not object to the admissibility of the documents.
Thereafter, Justice Oshodi admitted the documents as exhibits before the court.
Under cross-examination by Ojo, the witness, further asserted that Alaka was the leader of the syndicate and that he gave instructions to the others to carry out.
The defence also sought to tender in evidence the Zenith Bank account statement of the defendant. There was no objection from the prosecution and it was admitted in evidence.
The case has been adjourned till Friday, 7th July 2023 for the continuation of cross-examination.
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