Woman, 39, Nabbed for Defrauding Church N500m

By Femi Ogbonnikan in Abeokuta

Operatives of the Ogun State Police Command have apprehended a woman for allegedly defraud a church organisation to a tune of N500 million under a pretence that she wanted to assist the worshiping centre to organise funds for its charity organisation.

The woman, Iwuagwu Onyinyechi,  was arrested by the operatives in Ogun State, following a petition written by a Lagos-based lawyer, Mr. Godswill Ojakovo, to the Ogun State Commissioner of Police, wherein, he accused the 39-year-old woman of defrauding the church-based organisation, MIA Enterprise, through an act of forgery.

According to the petitioner, he claimed the suspect got procured an LPO from a company known as Location 3 properties and appealed to MIA organisation to fund the LPO,  consequent upon which the sum of N33, 118, 000 was transferred online to her.

“While the organisation was awaiting for the repayment of the above amount, the suspect came with another LPOs, which she purportedly got from Ancillia Catholic hospital Iju, and Holifull school Ikorodu, both in Lagos, upon which another sum of N77 million was given to her after showing relevant documents and proofs to back her claims,” said Ojakovo.

The lawyer stated further in the petition that as soon as she got the last payment in September 2018, the suspect disappeared into thin air.

“And this prompted the church to make discreet enquiries about the LPOs submitted and found out that all the LPOs were forged,”  the lawyer added.

While confirming the incident, spokesperson of the Ogun State Police Command, DSP Abimbola Oyeyemi, according to a statement issued yesterday, said the Commissioner of Police Ogun State,  Ahmed Iiyasu, upon the receipt of the petition, promptly directed the CP’s Monitoring team to go after the suspect and bring her to book.

“The team technically tracked down the suspect and arrested her on January 21, 2019.

“On interrogation,  the suspect confessed to the  commission of the crime. She admitted that all the LPOs presented by her were all forged as most of the companies where she claimed to have got the LPOs from, were only imaginary.

“Meanwhile, the Commissioner of Police has directed the monitoring team to arraign the suspect in court as soon as the investigation is concluded,” said the police spokesman added.