Prison Inspector Turns ATM Fraudster

An Inspector with the Enugu Command of Nigerian Correctional Service, Urulo Henry and five other suspects have been arrested by operatives of the Kaduna zonal office of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC for defrauding Nigerians using bank details obtained through SIM swaps and Automated Teller Machines, ATM.

The names of the suspects are Ugonna Owete, Ugonna Obinna, Chigbo Chidiebere, Oha Kingsley and Ahamefula Izuchukwu.

They were arrested in separate operations, sequel to a petition by a customer of Access Bank.

According to a statement by the EFCC spokesman, Wilson Uwujaren on Wednesday, the petitioner had alleged that monies were illegally transferred from his account without his authorization.

He said he opened an account with Diamond Bank (now Access Bank) sometime in February 2019, which he funded to the tune of N5 million and instructed the bank to open a fixed deposit account, with the sum of N1m from the earlier account, as opening balance.

The complainant said he was receiving regular alerts until the end of March when the alerts stopped coming, prompting him to demand his statement of account from the bank.

Upon receipt of his bank statement, he discovered to his chagrin that the sum of N2, 911,480 had fraudulently been transferred to several accounts between April 5 -9, without his authorisation.

Following his petition, the EFCC said it immediately swung into action and traced some of the funds to three of the suspects: Obinna who got N1.5m; Chidiebere, N210,000 and  Kingsley who received N300, 000.

All three were promptly arrested.

The statement said, “Further investigation revealed that Urulo, Owete, a known criminal who was earlier arrested and paraded by the Enugu State Police Command for conspiracy and armed robbery and Izuchukwu were equally complicit in the fraud.

“Upon arrest, items recovered from Urulo included a Toyota Camry, documents of two plots of land, two National Housing Fund passbook (one belonging to him and the other bearing Ani Wilfred Ochechukwu);17 ATM cards of different banks bearing different names; two NCS identity cards; two smartphones and two Nokia phones; one NHIS card, one voter card, 26 starter packs and 15 SIM cards of various networks.”

Two sachets of cannabis sativa, eight ATM cards bearing different names and banks, six starter packs, and four SIM cards of various networks, one ECOWAS passport, one Nigerian Defence Academy dependant ID card and a voter card were also recovered from Izuchukwu.

After investigations, the commission said the suspects will be arraigned.