A 63-year-old lady from Lagos, Nigeria (name withheld), fell unwell after losing N6.2m to con artists.
Anu Joseph, the victim’s daughter, told reporters that her mother had developed High Blood Pressure as a result of the ordeal.
Joseph claims the problems began on June 7, 2023, when she sent her mother a large sum of money to deal with an emergency.
According to her, her mother went to the bank but was unable to make a withdrawal since she had forgotten an essential paperwork at home.
Her mother, she claims, was a victim of identity theft on her way home from the bank.
The date June 7, 2023, was mentioned by her. I urged my mom to visit a bank on Victoria Island so that I may wire her some money for an emergency. She went, but the deal fell through because she was missing a single piece of paperwork.
She was leaving the bank and wanted to know how to get to Ojuelegba. By sheer chance, a car pulled up in front of her, and when the driver inquired as to her destination, she happily informed him. He beckoned her inside.
“They started talking about Pounds, someone having a consignment, and all that, and they convinced my mom to withdraw N3m and give it to them,” I said.
She said that her mother had withdrawn N3m with the driver’s help and that they had met with the people to whom the money had been sent.
My mother’s high blood pressure was a secret until it made her sick. Since she discovered the deception, her mental state has deteriorated. She was “reluctant to admit that she had been duped,” Joseph claimed.
She went on to explain that her mother had sent money to the fraudsters until she had nothing left to send them since they kept calling her on the phone.
She went on to say that “as if that wasn’t enough,” she kept receiving requests from the same group of people to transfer them money, totaling N6.2m.
Joseph was perplexed as to why the police officers at the Force Criminal Investigation Department Annex in Alagbon had such a hard time tracking down the fraudsters despite having access to their bank details.
Niyi Ogundeyi, a spokesman for the FCID, said he had spoken with the victim’s daughter and that an inquiry was underway.
The victim’s daughter, he claimed, “I met with. I’ve seen the petition, and some procedures do require funding regardless of which officer would handle them.
They’ll have to spend some cash on tracking, though. There is no police tracking device. If they want to find account holders but don’t have their addresses, they’ll need a court order to search down the phone numbers on the accounts instead.In Lagos, court orders are never issued again. The police will need to travel to Ibadan to obtain this court order, as the banks will refuse to comply without it.
It takes time and resources that the police simply do not have.
But the investigation is ongoing, and the officer in charge is taking the necessary steps to ensure the culprits are apprehended, as far as I can tell.
Meanwhile, Benjamin Hundeyin, the state police’s public relations officer, urged residents to draw wisdom from the mistakes of others.
Everyone can benefit from hearing about the trials and tribulations of others. They should be cautious about talking about money with just anyone.
He reassured the public that “the police will always work on every complaint we get and we will continue to enlighten people to be very careful as they go about their daily responsibilities.”
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