Police naps bank fraudsters in Lagos

Ajisafe Olugbenga
The suspect.

Nemesis has finally caught up with Ajisafe Olugbenga, 47 years old, suspected fraudster; he was arrested alongside six of his accomplices by operatives of the Rapid Response Squad (RRS) of the Lagos State Police Command.

The arrest was made possible by the high-tech devices recently procured by the Lagos State Government. The tracking devices were said to have trailed the kingpin to his hideout where he was picked and taken away to the Alausa Secretariat, Ikeja office of the RRS for further investigation.

Ajisafe, who is popularly known as ‘Harrison’ among his gang members, was arrested on Tuesday, April 25, 2017, after he was mentioned and fingered as the initiator of SIMs swap deal at a network provider’s outlet in Surulere (Lagos) and Abeokuta (Ogun State).

It was also gathered that, Ajisafe had before his arrest on Tuesday been on the run over his involvement in a case of N2 million fraud in one of the old generation banks in Lagos State sometime in April, 2016.

Other members of the syndicate arrested in connection with the case are Michael Adeoye, Ayo Olalekan, Israel Ochenehi, Adegbenro Opeyemi, Obong Udeme – Obot and Peter Ezurike.

It would be recalled that the uncovered fraud detection last year prompted the Lagos State Commissioner of Police, Mr. Fatai Owoseni, who called for a meeting of bank executives aimed at strategising on the methods and approaches to adopt, in order to curtail the rising profile in bank frauds in the state.

It was further disclosed that Owoseni, had urged banks in Lagos State to raise the bar of their anti-fraud internal mechanism, in order to deter fraudsters from having their ways through.

It was gathered that Ajisafe met his water-loo when he wanted to recruit three suspects through which some SIM cards belonging to a particular network (name withheld) were being swapped and used for some of the gang’s bank fraud.

Two of the suspects recruited by Ajisafe for the sim swap; Shamsudeen Olalekan, 35 years old, and Nicholas Egbele, were arrested few days earlier before Ajisafe was picked up on Tuesday.

Also arrested along with them is a staff of a popular network provider in an outlet in Abeokuta who has been assisting the gang in SIM swapping, while another accomplice is said to be on the run.
Olalekan and Egbede had confessed and disclosed that they were promised N20,000 for every sim card swapped for the gang.

They also disclosed to the police that Ajisafe upon supplying them their passport photographs, procured national ID cards for them, with names of bank’s account holders. “This is to be accompanied with sworn affidavit on loss of SIM card,” said Lekan. 

Police sources further revealed that several details of bank customers sent via SIMs to Ajisafe’s line by some people believed to be banks’ insiders have been retrieved from his mobile phone.

The fraudsters, according to sources, usually met in Idi-Araba (Mushin), National Filling Station (Ikeja Along), and Kotangoa Market (Alimosho) to perfect their plans whenever they have jobs and when it was time to share the proceed of their loots.