Detectives attached to the Inspector-General of Police Special Intelligence Response Team, led by an Assistant Commissioner of Police, Abba Kyari, have started quizzing a microfinance bank General Manager, who is also a bureau de change operator, for allegedly attempting to murder his client after defrauding him.
According to the victim, Chief A. Lucky, his business was seriously affected after he engaged the services of the operator, Chief G. Godwin, to transfer $140,000 to his business partner in China, four years ago.
It was gathered that Godwin’s lawyer allegedly told police about his client’s plan to murder Lucky after both men started having friction over the dollars.
Lucky said: “I lost a lot of money after the bank operator swindled me. It all started on February 26, 2014, after the bank operator, who also owns the Bureau De Change, approached me, pleading that I should patronize his company by buying foreign exchange (dollars) from him. Consequently, I gave him naira equivalent of $140,000 to purchase excess foreign exchange, which he claimed he had.
“After collecting the naira equivalent, the operator diverted it to his relation in China and started telling me stories. So far, he has hired many lawyers over the case after I accused him of swindling me. He has consistently truncated several investigations against him until he got trapped after hiring a certain Igbo lawyer. The lawyer doesn’t tolerate criminality. The lawyer refused to do his bidding to help him eliminate.
“The lawyer alleged that the operator gave him N200, 000 to hire assassins to eliminate me with a promise to pay further N1.5m after a successful operation.”
The lawyer also alleged that the operator travelled out of Lagos on the agreed date in order to create room for alibi such that nobody could trace or indict him after the assassination.
According to Lucky, he had earlier taken the case to the Federal Anti-Robbery Squad, Adeniji-Adele, Lagos.
Lucky alleged that the suspect, while being quizzed, accused a second generation bank in Festac, Lagos as an accomplice in the fraud case.
Lucky said: “That was the bank through which he claimed he transferred my money. He tried to rope them. The case has gone to different police formations, including the Public Petitions Committee of the House of Representative, Abuja, where upon startling revelations, that the Power of Attorney the operator used in his petition was discovered to have been forged. His lawyer withdrew from the case and decided to expose him.”
He appealed to the police to charge the matter to court.
Efforts to get comments from the operator failed, but a source, who claimed to be close to him, stated that it was a case of connivance between Lucky and fraudulent bank officials to defraud the operator.
The source said: “The operator received an e-mail from the businessman on the said date, instructing him to transfer the sum of $230,000 to an account in China. Believing that the e-mail originated from the businessman, because it has been their mode of communication, he instructed a second generation bank to carry out the transfer.
Surprisingly, the businessman later denied giving the operator any such instruction via e-mail prompting a quick notification to the bank to call back the initial money they transferred and halt further transfer. The bank later called to assure that they have raised a ‘Red Alert’ on the account but the money could not be accessed till date. While this was going on, the businessman dragged the operator to the police where he was detained for six days.
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