Two months ago, the New Telegraph exclusively reported how Chief Ifeanyi Ezenwa, an inmate in Kuje Maximum Prison, Abuja, swindled an orthopedic store in FCT.
Investigations revealed that he was able to achieve the feat with the assistance of some prison warders and judge, who was also an inmate.
Ezenwa walked into the orthopedic store in the FCT, with the prison warders posing as his body guards. While Ezenwa and the prison guards were enacting their drama, they didn’t know that a Close Circuit Television captured everything. The video would later be used to nail him and the warders.
Presently, Ezenwa, still operating from Kuje Prison, located in Abuja, has committed another crime. This time, he bought a vehicle for N17 million with a fake bank alert..
Police investigators said the frauds Ezenwa had committed right from inside Kuje Prison had become too many that nobody was counting anymore.
In August, New Telegraph reported how Ezenwa defrauded a store owner in Abuja of automatic wheelchairs and other goods said to worth a tidy sum of money.
Ezenwa, described by police detectives as a super serial fraudster, is reputed to be a specialist in using fake bank alerts to defraud victims of millions of naira right from inside prison.
Defrauding of the wheelchairs store in July came four months after he threatened to sue four national newspapers for N4 billion for reporting and publishing how he ran his fraud syndicate right from prison.
At different times he had posed as a chief executive officer of a company in the United Kingdom, as a king and chief as well as an American doctor. The police also said Ezenwa had masterminded many frauds, causing financial ruins for many businessmen and women. It was also learnt that Ezenwa had 17 different fraud cases pending in different courts before the latest crime.
When some companies started receiving complaints of fraud, majorly traced to online trading and banking, the matter was reported to the Special Intelligence Response Team, headed by Assistant Commissioner of Police, Abba Kyari. The investigators were shocked after they traced the perpetrator of several companies’ frauds to Kuje Prison.
Today, it appears that no matter the number of times he has been caught and found out, Ezenwa, like a leopard, will never change its skin.
A police source said: “We recovered the brand new Toyota Hilux Vehicle from him. He is known as the criminal kingpin in the prison. This time, he used a fake bank alert to pay and collect the vehicle from Elisade Motors in Abuja. He has an errand boy, Yahaya, whom he used to send to collect items, after he had paid for them through online trading and banking. He usually pays with fake bank alerts. This time, he bought N17m car with a fake bank alert, but we have recovered the car.”
After Ezenwa paid N38.9 million for three cars at Elizade Motor Company, he sent Yahaya to go and pick the cars. When Yahaya got there, the company said it was only one vehicle that was available.
Yahaya accepted to take the one available, promising to return for the other two after the company might have bought them.
Yahaya, a friend to the Judge, said he knew Ezenwa and the Judge were running a scam and determined to get a piece of the action. He asked them to give some percentage. But after the car had been sold, they refused. This made him to disappear with the car. He went to Kano State, sold it for N9 million.
He used N1.9 million to buy another car and used N7 million to run his political campaign. When Ezenwa realized that a boy, whom he brought into the scam, had played a fast one on him, he called Elizade Motor Company and spilled the bean. Ezenwa knew he had nothing to lose. He was already in prison; he couldn’t go down more than that.
Ezenwa told the motor company that they had been defrauded, stressing that they should go after Yahaya.
A petition to that effect was drafted to the Inspector General of Police, Ibrahim Idris, by the motor company.
The IGP immediately alerted Kyari and his men, instructing to them to find and arrest Yahaya. Yahaya was trailed to Kano State and arrested.
Yahaya, 43, father of five children and two wives, said that he is a Diploma Holder in Sharia and Civil Law. He graduated in 2010 from Legal Islamic Yola, Adamawa State.
He used to work at Sharia Court Gombe as a driver, but later resigned in 2013. He resigned he wanted to contest election as a local government chairman. He contested and lost. Last year, he relocated to Abuja and went into land property business.
He said: “I was arrested by the police because I went into fraud. It was a man, known as Igwe, whom introduced me into fraud. I met Igwe in Kuje Prison when I went to visit one of my friends, Geja, a judge at an Abuja Upper Sharia Court. The judge was an inmate in the prison. I went to visit him. It was after I was arrested that I learned that Igwe’s real name is Chief Ifeanyi Ezenwa. The first job I did for him was the orthopedic store, where I collected two wheelchairs, blood pressure machines and N50, 000 for him. After I collected the money, the judge instructed me to take the money High Court and pay for his bail. It was after the payment, that the judge left prison.”
Yahaya said that he was not given anything for that deal because at that point, he was not aware that the items were not really paid for.
According to him, if he had known he would have collected his share.
Yahaya recalled: “Later, Geja called me and told me that those items where bought with fake alert. After Geja was bailed, he called and told me that Ezenwa wanted me to do a job for him.
“He asked me to go to Elizade Motor Company; he made me speak with them. At the end, he told them that he wanted to buy five vehicles. I don’t know how he did it, but after a while, Geja called me again that the company was ready for me. He said I should go and pick two of the vehicles. When I got to there, they gave me just one vehicle; a Toyota Hilux. I called Geja and told him that I would not submit the vehicle to Ezenwa if he didn’t give me 30 per cent of the value of the vehicle.
“They refused the deal, which made me to take the vehicle to Kano, where I sold it for N9 million. I bought a car of N1.9 million, and I spent the rest. I spent a large part of the money on my people. I was contesting for election.”
According to the police, Ezenwa wouldn’t have been able to continue in his fraudulent activities, right from prison, if not that prison warders were aiding him.
A police source said: “Ezenwa lives in a self-contained room, fully furnished inside Kuje Prison with Air Conditioner. He has a television set, fridge and exercise machines. Some prison warders are working with him. We would soon unravel everything soonest. Ezenwa has people bringing money, goods and other items into the prison for him. The items are given to the prison warders to deliver to Ezenwa.
“He used to buys cows and slaughter inside the prison every week. All persons close to him benefit from the food and meat, flowing around him. We have a CCTV showing Ezenwa posing as a rich man, when he wanted to defraud the medical store of the automatic wheelchairs. The prison warders were supposed to take him out for medical checkup, but instead, they detoured, under the instruction of Ezenwa. They went to the orthopedic store.”
To further nail Ezenwa and his warder friends, the store owner provided the CCTV and wrote statements on how the serial fraudster, defrauded them, using fake bank alert.
The police source said: “He deliberately dressed as a rich man, with the warders posing as bodyguards. After visiting the store, Ezenwa went back to the prison, called the store that someone would come to pick the wheelchairs and sent them fake bank alerts. He sent his boy, Dalhatu Yahaya to go and collect the wheelchairs. The complainant, who is store owner, said that one of the warders held a gun and stood at the door of the store.
“The warders pretended to be in charge of carrying Ezenwa’s money and phone. The complainant said one of the prison warders held a gun. They called him chairman. The next day, he called the store and made orders for two wheelchairs and two blood pressure machines. He deliberately paid in excess of N50, 000 using a fake bank alert. He then sent Yahaya to go and pick the good and collect the N50, 000 balances. Prison warders are really assisting him to perpetuate his crimes. When we arrested Yahaya, he took us to the store.”
The police disclosed that Ezenwa’s case was one of Criminal Conspiracy and Advance Fee Fraud. Ezenwa is presently awaiting trial over different fraud cases, with many involving the use of fake bank alerts to defraud companies.
Another investigator said: “What we also discovered was that, each time he sends these fake bank alerts to the victims, who were mostly traders, the account balance on trader’s bank account would equal the amount that has been sent into his account. We’ve had several complaints from members of the public about Ezenwa’s fraudulent activities and we have had cause to investigate and trace him to his cell at the Kuje prison, where we recovered four exotic vehicles.
“We also arrested his wife at that time, who was the person receiving most of the stolen items since he was in the prison. When we interrogated his wife, she confessed that she wasn’t aware that her husband was a fraudster, detained in prison custody. She told us that her husband wasn’t even present during their marriage. She married him by proxy. Ezenwa used to speak to her on phone. She was told that her husband resides overseas, where he runs his business.
“On June 30, 2017, Ezenwa sent Yahaya to Elizade Motors. He used to steal a Toyota Hilux car worth N17 million, but Yahaya ran away with the vehicle, which he sold for N9m in Kano State.”