Bankers, MTN agents arrested for defrauding customers of N150m

Detectives attached to the Special Fraud Unit of the Nigeria Police Force have arrested three bankers of a second generation bank and three agents of MTN for allegedly hacking into bank accounts and diverting not less than N150 million.
The bankers arrested were Oyelade Shola-Isaac, 32; Osuolale Hammid, 40; and Akeem Adesina, 33.
The MTN agents were identified as Okpetu John, 29; Chukwumnoso Ifeanyi, 30; and Salako Abdulsalam.
Others arrested in connection with the crime are Ismaeel Salami, 49; Akinola Oghuan, 34; Sarumi Abubakar, 32; James Idagu, 56; and Sunday Okeke, 33.
Five of the suspects, according to the police were arrested at an eatery on Bode Thomas Street, Surulere, Lagos State.
Not less than 32 Automated Teller Machine cards belonging to the victims from whom they milked the over N150 million were said to have been recovered from Salami’s car.
The operations, according to the police, were carried out mostly over the weekends and public holidays to evade detection.
The spokesman of the SFU, ASP Lawal Audu, who paraded the suspects on Monday at the unit’s office in Ikoyi, Lagos State, said: “These criminal group who usually operate with active connivance of some staff of a second generation bank and a popular communication network provider in Nigeria had defraud over 20 customers in Oyo and Lagos States to the tune of N150 million.
“With these bank staff and telecom network provider, the syndicate fraudulently transferred this money into about 40 other counts with the aid of ATM cards in different other banks where instant withdrawals were made by these fraudsters.
“The operations of these criminal syndicate usually take place weekends and public holidays to evade being detected by banks monitoring mechanism or by owners of the target funded accounts.
“Police detectives acting on a tip off on May 26 and 29, 2017 first swooped on one self acclaimed Alhaji Ismaeel Salami and four of his members in DOMINO Eatery along Bode Thomas, Surulere Lagos where 36 ATM cards were recovered from them.
“It was however, unveiled that this syndicate usually sourced their bank ATM Cards from their owners, especially among the vulnerable youths, deceiving them to release their ATM Cards, accounts numbers and passwords for eventual monetary rewards based on the amount their card received.
“The bankers involved usually supply the syndicate with the bank customer funded accounts that are not into internet banking, while the staff of the telecom network provider assist them to swap the SIM cards number of the targeted bank customers so that they will be unable to receive alerts of any transactions on their accounts within the period that their accounts is being siphoned.
“This syndicate in order to exhaust the funds received on the ATM cards normally make their purchases via POS, buying expensive phones and electronics from popular outlets.”
Salami, however, denied involvement in the fraud.
He said one Moses contracted him to get the ATM cards.
He said: “I was in an eatery at Surulere with my friends when the policemen came to arrest us and said we were fraudsters.
“In May this year, a friend of mine, Moses, asked me to get some ATM cards for him, but I did not demand what he wanted to use them for.
“I was looking for someone that could help me get the ATM cards when I came across one Abubakar at Ibadan, Oyo State.
“To my surprise, he brought about 40 cards to me.”
Abubakar equally said he got some of the cards from his friends.
The bankers also denied involvement.
Shola-Isaac said: “One day, my manager called me to come to the office that my car on the premises was blocking another car.
“When I got there, I was told someone used my password for fraud and that my two colleagues had also confessed to the crime.
“That was how we were transferred to the SFU last Tuesday.”
Hammid said he was also not in the know about the fraud.