A United States of America-based lady alleged to have jumped into the lagoon off the Third Mainland Bridge in Lagos State, Oluwatoyin Akinloye, was actually duped of N75 million by the syndicate that planted the story in the media, a police report has said.
The report, by the Inspector General of Police Intelligence Response Team, led by Deputy Commissioner of Police Abba Kyari, came after the lady was said to have decided to commit suicide because of the spread of her nude pictures on the Internet and the discovery by her husband, a banker, that their children was not his.
However, discreet investigation by the Kyari-led team has it that Akinloye, popularly known as Toyin Texas, only fell prey to a notorious fraud syndicate based Ijebu-Ode, Ogun State and which has international connections.
Between March 2017 and January 2018, Akinloye lost over N75 million to the syndicate.
The report had it that it was her failure to keep remitting money to the syndicate that led to the release of her nude pictures on the Internet.
However, based on a petition by the aggrieved lady, the IRT was said to have unearthed the truth of the case.
The syndicate, according to Akinloye’s petition to the Inspector General of Police, Ibrahim Idris, resorted to blackmail and threat of killing to extort her of over N75 million.
Two alleged members of the syndicate, Otunba Femi Adesanya and Alhaji Ganiu Awojobi, have been arrested during the course of investigation.
Awojobi, who was said to have acted as an Islamic cleric, lured the victim from America to Nigeria in November 2017 under the pretense of praying for her, while Adesanya, who pretended to be a businessman, defrauded her using a phony oil deal.
The report said Adesanya, allegedly the ringleader of the syndicate, had been in the business of defrauding and blackmailing married women across the country for long.
The report accused him of being the person behind the publication of the nude photographs of Akinloye.
The victim in her petition to Idris said she fell prey to the antics of the syndicate who used her friend, Sherrifat Abu, to reach her.
Abu, also based in the United States of America, approached in November 2016, one month after she lost one of her sisters, and told her that an Islamic cleric who prays for her in Nigeria had a prophesy that she (Akinloye) would die same way her sister died except she prayed fervently.
Akinloye said in her petition to Idris: “Sherrifat lives in the USA and we were close friends when this issue started and she was the person who linked me to the Alfa in Nigeria but I wasn’t talking to the Alfa.
“She then traveled to London, England to meet in March 2017 to meet Otunba Adesanya, who she had an affair with and she called and me again and said that the Alfa told her that my death was imminent except I perform some prayers.
“While she was saying this, Otunba Adesanya came in and told me that he knows the Alfa I should obey the him because he is very powerful and well known in Nigeria.
“Otunba Adesanya also told me that he has several businesses in Nigeria, including petrol filling station in Ijebu-Ode Ogun State.
“Alfa Awojobi, was demanding N154,000 for the prayers and I told Sherri and Otunba that I don’t have such money and offered to pay N100,000 for me and I should pay the balance.
“I did what they said and Alfa started praying for me.
“He did that until April, 2018 and he insisted that I must come to Nigeria for the final prayer.
“I was really scared then and I didn’t want to die the way my younger sister did and I traveled to Nigeria and went straight to Alfa at Ijebu-Ode.
“He asked me to take my bath before entering his house, which I did, and by midnight, he brought four men and they started praying for me.
“Alfa then said he has seen more prophesy on my husband and children and I ended up spending N1.5 million at the Alfa’s place before leaving back to America.
“Otunba Adesanya then came in and told me that he wanted to invest my money in oil business using his petrol filling stations.
“He took me round some filling station in Ijebu-Ode and he was greeted as the owner.
“He asked me to invest a huge amount of money and after one month I will get back my capital and 50 per cent of investment as profit because I trusted him.
“I went and borrowed N30 million and the person who borrowed me the money paid it into his account.
“One month after I gave him the money, I called and started asking about the business, Otunba Adesanya got angry and paid back the money into my account.
“I got shocked and this made me believe and trust Otunba Adesanya as a genuine businessman, then I pleaded and asked him to continue with the business and then he asked me to change the money into dollar, which I did, and I took them to him.
“Two months after then, when I tried to get back my money he told me that the money I gave to him to invest into the business wasn’t enough and he needed money and I went on scouting for more money.
“I needed up giving him a total N75 million, he also asked me to also pay the sum of N31 million through the Alfa’s account.
“But on December 2017, one of his boys called and told me that I was been defrauded, then I tired arresting with some military policemen and they couldn’t recover my money, I also got him arrested with policemen in Osun and Ondo States, he went off the hook, then I brought in operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission to arrest him, and they recovered 21,000 nude photos and videos of various Nigeria women.
“He claimed he was very sick and the EFCC granted him bail, but after his release he went on the internet and published Photoshop nude phots of myself and him, claiming that he had sexual relationship with me, which was a lie.
“He was also the person who circulated the story that I have jumped into the Third Mainland Bridge Lagoon, over infidelity.
“The EFCC tried to caution him but he wouldn’t listen because he wanted to blackmail me into stopping my case, but the Alfa who the EFCC also found financial transactions between Otunba Adesanya and him was yet to be arrested.
“I was the advised to go the IGP IRT and report my case and they trailed and arrested the Alfa as well as Otunba Adesanya.”
Awojobi, when interviewed, admitted that he only took N31 million from Akinloye and he explained that it was Adesanya who he also identified as his partner that brought the businesswoman to him.
He said: “I am a fraudster and I joined the syndicate three years ago.
“I was once a victim before I joined.
“I act as an Islamic cleric, which is locally known as Alfa, and it was Otunba that brought Toyin’s job and we defrauded her.
“All the money that was paid into my account by the business woman was shared between Otunba and I.”
But Adesanya is insisting he had sexual relationship with Akinloye, adding that the nude picture were exposed on the Internet because she went public with the story of his arrest.
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