bank cheque for N8,050,000.
The gang also
cashed three additional cheques totaling N450,000 from the bank account of the
victim before their operation was foiled by the police, who responded to a
distress call from residents.
The suspects,
Okechukwu Emeka (39), Ugorji Maranatha (37) and Momoh Jimoh were arrested.
The
businessman, identified as Mr. Efulu, had advertised online that a duplex at
Prince and Princess Estate in Abuja, was for sale for N160million.
He
subsequently got a phone call from Emeka, who expressed interest in the
property, but the duo reportedly settled for N140m.
Emeka invited
Efulu to his residence at Durumi for finalisation of the transaction, but
unknown to the latter, Emeka was nursing a plan to dispossess him of his
property as well as the money.
Mr Efulu told
Punch that Emeka offered to pay in dollars, but he declined saying he preferred
naira.
According to
him, he sat in Emeka’s living room expecting the money, two men emerged from
another room, held him down and handcuffed his hands and chained his legs.
“Emeka then
forced me at gunpoint to sign three cheques for N450,000 which he asked his
accomplices to go and cash. He also directed them to take my car to a hidden
location; they seized my phones and deleted all my contacts, text messages,
Whatsapp chats, pictures and other things; Emeka also forced me to write
another cheque for N8.050 million,” the traumatised victim explained.
Efulu narrated
that he was kept in a room, adding that he pulled down the window blind,
stretched out one of his hands through the burglary-proof and shouted for help.
“When Emeka
heard my shout, he rushed to the room, but I had locked the door. But he came
into the room through the ceiling and I fought him with all my strength. When
he observed that he could not overpower me, he bit me in the back and managed
to escape,” he said, adding that the police showed up shortly after and rescued
him.
Efulu observed
that he would have been killed by the gang, but for the money in his account,
which they wanted to withdraw. He noted that they needed him to be alive to
confirm the withdrawal from the bank.
But Emeka, who
claimed to be a crude oil dealer, stated that he paid $303,000 to Efulu for his
property at N372 exchange rate, adding that they had problems because he
refused to leave after collecting the money.
He explained
that the N8.050 cheque was the discount he negotiated with Efulu, stressing
that he asked his friends to handcuff the property owner “because I felt
threatened by his continued stay in my house for over four hours.”
Asked how he
got the pump action rifle and the handcuffs he used to subdue Efulu, Emeka said
he bought it from a friend, a policeman.
He said, “I
didn’t plan to hurt him, if I had any evil intention, I wouldn’t have invited
him to my house. I paid him $303,000 for the property and he gave the money to
his agent, one Mr. Joshua who went out to a bureau de change operator to check
whether it’s genuine, but the mistake I made was using the handcuffs on him.”
Maranatha, who
described himself as a security consultant, stated that Emeka directed them to
put the handcuffs on Efulu because he was owing him, adding that he promised to
release him once he settled the debt.
“He invited us
to his house and told us that we would help him to put handcuffs on a man who
was owing him, so when we got to his house, he asked us to wait in the
children’s room; he later asked us to hold down the man and we handcuffed his
hands and chained his legs,” he admitted.
The suspect
stated that Emeka directed them to cash four cheques, but they could only cash
three for N450,000.
The third
suspect, Jimoh, corroborated Maranatha, adding that they were arrested by the
police as they were coming back from the bank with the money.
The police
have said they would be charged to court soon.
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