Police storm den of Fraudsters, arrest ring leader

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Nicknamed, “Pokuku Shrine,” the den has been used by suspected fraudsters to carry out various forms of criminal activities until Wednesday, September 21 when the police uncovered it.

The state Commissioner of Police, Ahmed Ilyasu, revealed that the shrine was raided by the police following an intelligence report on the criminal activities being carried out at the location.

The two bedroom mud house is located in the remotest part of the village and contained effigies, fake foreign and local currencies and other fetish objects.

The Federal Special Anti-Robbery Squad was in charge of the raid in which one of the suspected fraudsters said to be the ringleader, Haruna Moshood, was arrested, while three other suspects escaped.

According to the CP, many people have fallen victim to scams arranged by the fraudsters who are said to also be involved in kidnapping.

“This is a house of horror where different kinds of criminal activities had taken place.

“Following diligent and intelligent information of our special operatives, FSARS stormed this horror house and we discovered that it is a receiving end of kidnapped victims.

“It is also a place where suspected kidnappers dispose property of their victims. We have been able to recover different denominations of fake dollars and nairas.

“By the time we arrived here, we did not see any victim, and some of the suspected kidnappers escaped. However, we were able to arrest one of the leaders, identified as Haruna Moshood.

“I appeal to the state residents to be cautious so that they will not become preys in the hands of criminally-minded people.”

Speaking with PUNCH Metro, Moshood disclosed that himself and other members of his gang were into fraud, noting that greedy people usually fell for their schemes.

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Moshood added that one of his gang members usually hid in one of the rooms and talked as an “oracle” to deceive their victims, while the effigies aided their deceit.

He said, “We always play on the greed of the victims because they were looking for quick money.

“Again, we also study how wealthy they were by telling them to bring a certain amount of money. For instance, if we ask a victim to bring N100,000 and he brought it, that shows he or she could bring a higher amount.”

Punch reports that the 34-year-old Moshood joined the gang in 2015.