By Promise Eze
An inmate on death row at the Ibara Correctional Centre in Ogun State, Femi Oso, has been accused of defrauding a yet-to-be-identified lady to the tune of N17m in the state via a romance scam.
THE PUNCH gathered that Oso and the victim got connected on Facebook and after chatting with each other for a while, they commenced a relationship.
During the relationship, it was learnt that Oso’s lover, through a Point-of-Sale operator identified simply as Ayoola, paid him money in tranches amounting to N17m.
Along the line, the victim, while assessing her relationship with Oso who reportedly never disclosed his status as an inmate to her, started suspecting foul play and later shared her experience with her yet-to-be-identified sister.
The victim’s sister, thereafter, involved her husband, a serving policeman attached to the Ondo State Police Command, who, on the suspicion of a romance scam, reported the case to the command’s Anti-Kidnapping Unit for investigation.
The policemen trailed the PoS operator to Ibara, Ogun State, arrested him and took him to their operational base in Akure, Ondo State, for interrogation.
It was learnt that during interrogation, Ayoola confessed that the money was for Oso, and mentioned two persons, a school cleaner, Nofisat Adeosun, and Oso’s brother-in-law identified simply as Segun, as people who usually collected money from him on the instruction of the inmate.
She said, “When the policemen arrested me at my workplace at Ibara Baptist Nursery and Primary School, I asked what my offense was and I was told that they will tell me when we get to their base in Akure.
“When we got there, they told me I was arrested because of N17m fraud committed by an inmate of Ibara Correctional Centre, Femi Oso. I was told the money was paid to Oso through a PoS operator, Ayoola.
“The police had arrested Ayoola and arrested me on the allegation that I knew about the fraud and I said I knew nothing about it. When I asked Ayoola at the station why he mentioned my name, especially when I am not aware of the money, he started pleading.”
The mother of two said she spent about 10 days before she was allowed to call a family friend, Oluwafemi Adekunle, who alongside his relative, Jide Ikumapayi, came to secure her bail.
She, however, explained that the school where she was working as a cleaner terminated her appointment following the arrest.
Speaking on the case, Ikumapayi, while describing Adeosun’s arrest as an unfortunate experience, said the investigation proved that she had no link to the crime.
Ikumapayi said an investigation was also extended to the Ibara Correctional Centre to bring in Oso for questioning, adding that he was not released because of his status as an inmate on death row.
He, however, said efforts were on to arrest Oso’s wife, who went into hiding after realising that the police were on her trail.
Contacted, the Police Public Relations Officer, Ondo State Command, Funmi Odunlami, while confirming the development, said an investigation into the case was still ongoing.
He added that Ayoola, alongside Oso’s brother-in-law, Segun, who on behalf of his in-law, reportedly collected the N17m from the PoS operator for onward delivery to his sister who was said to still be at large, was also arrested.
