Corps member arraigned in court over fraud

A young graduate currently undergoing the mandatory National Youth Service scheme in Ondo State, Solomon Uchendu, and two others, Ndubuisi Agu and Uchendo Chikwadu, have been dragged before Justice D. V. Agishir of the Federal High Court sitting in Enugu, Enugu State, for offences ranging from obtaining by false pretence and Advanced Fee Fraud, popularly called 419.

According to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, the suspects who were living at 4, Coal City University Close, Independence Layout, Enugu, were arrested by operatives of the anti-graft agency following intelligence report over their alleged involvement in Internet crime.

The suspects allegedly confessed to the crime, saying that they had about seven different email accounts registered with different names.

In a press release by the agency, Uchendu, who is facing a seven-count charge, further disclosed that most of his victims were from the United States of America, Canada and Germany.

The statement signed by Wilson Uwujaren, the Head of Media and Publicyt of the EFCC, Uchendu had already made some hits and collected some money from some women from Canada, Germany and USA.

Solomon Uchendu allegedly confessed:

"One Patricia from Canada gave me $1200USD; Larisa from Germany gave me $300USD while one Ethel from the U.S. also gave me $300USD. All of them know me as Lincoln, but they don’t know that I live in Nigeria."

The second suspect, Agu, who hails from Imo State, also told the court that he had numerous email accounts.

Agu, a final year student of the Enugu State University of Science and Technology, Enugu, further told the court that he realized $13000USD between 2013 and February, 2014 from some of his victims across the world.

The third suspect, Chikwadu, a native of Enugu State, confessed that he had three fake drivers’ licences, which were procured in the names of John Omoaroijake, Gary Harry and Chikwadu Uchendu at a cyber-cafe on Airport Road and at the licensing office at Jakpa Road in Warri, Delta State.

Chikwadu, who is currently seeking admission into the Delta State University, said he met one 32 year-old nurse, Grace Talves of Blackpool, United Kingdom on a dating site named “Tagged”.

The suspect, who claimed to be 42-year-old Harry Phillp, thereafter, began to send love scam mails and pictures to Talves, a British divorcee and mother of one, who is currently in Nigeria for an engineering job.

He stated that he duped her of £500, an Ipad and a Mac Air laptop.