How bank managers, police assist us to rob victims–Fake EFCC agents

• Leader poses as EFCC director

They enjoyed life as suspected fraudsters and robbers while it lasted, raking in thousands of dollars. It was as if it would never end. Seeing that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission was feared by all Nigerians, they chose to use the agency’s name to strike awe in the hearts of their victims.

Like the alluring bait in a fish trap, the only female member of the six-member gang, 32-year-old Amira Abdallahi, used her stunning looks to pin down potential victims for her alleged co-conspirators to fleece of their foreign currencies. A mother of five, Lebanese-born Amira was an interior decorator who abandoned the profession sometime last year to go into full-scale armed robbery.
The leader of the gang was known as Princewell Arinze (Eze) alias Nwobodo. Police described them as armed robbers because they operate and dispossessed their victims of dollars using guns, branded EFCC vests, walkie-talkies, handcuffs and a dismissed policeman. The gang leader, who insisted during an interview with Sunday Telegraph at the headquarters of the Lagos State Police Command, that they were not armed robbers, admitted to impersonating EFCC operatives and engaging in fraud. Amira, whose youngest child is just six months old, was born by a woman from Edo State.
She told Sunday Telegraph that she was deceived into joining the gang because of easy money. She and her fellow gang members were arrested by policemen attached to the Special Anti-Robbery Squad of the state police command. Since her arrest, investigators have been digging into her background and activities.
A police source said: “She married overseas and was brought to Nigeria by her husband. When she teamed up with the Senator Nwobodo-led gang of conmen, she made enough money in her first operation with them. She gave her husband N1 million out of the money to start a business, but he squandered it.
This was the major reason she divorced him. She said her husband was not capable of taking care of her and the kids. Police believe that the husband knew that Amira was into crime.
He came to SARS office to complain that since his wife met Princewell, he had not being seeing her and she later left him.” According to the police source, Amira met Princewill at the airport. She gave him her call card and introduced herself as an interior decorator. Princewill later invited and introduced her into the sort of business he and his gang do.
Initially, she refused to join the gang, but Princewill had already interviewed her and found her very smart. He told her that it was not really a criminal job, but one that needs someone pitting his or her brains against another.
The police source continued: “When she received her cut from the first operation, Amira felt it was an attractive job. She walked out of her marriage and husband, and went full swing into the illegal business with Princewill and his gang.”
Investigators discovered that Amira was the key member of the gang who used to set up the bureau de change operators before Princewill and others would appear in EFCC vests. Disclosing how Amira’s role in the gang was critical to the success of every operation, another police source said: “Once any gang member brought a bureau de change operator’s phone number, the person would hand it over to Amira.
She would call the operator. She would tell the operator to meet her at a particular hotel, eatery, airport or bank. Most times she would go to the airport, put a call across to an operator and say she was at the airport, that her husband had just arrived Lagos. She would tell the operator that she needed a reliable bureau de change operator to change dollars for her.
“Sometimes, she would suggest to the bureau de change operator to meet her at the bank to change money for her. Once she was in the banking hall, waiting for the operator, she would put a call across to Nwobodo and other members of the gang. Princewell and others, dressed in the branded vests of the EFCC, would come into the banking hall.
They would come in their car, with Princewell sitting in the back of the car, posing as one of the directors of EFCC. They would have walkie-talkies, guns and handcuffs. Once they arrived at any bank premises, Princewell would introduce himself to the mobile policemen attached to the bank as an EFCC director, claiming that he and others came to the bank to check out allegations of money laundering. “The mobile policemen usually fell for the ruse because of the siren blaring car, walkie-talkies, guns and handcuffs. In fact, they would escort him into the bank.
They would arrest the bureau de change operator that came to the bank to transact business with Amira. The mobile policemen, unaware of what was going on, would assist in the arrest, beating the person and bundling him into the conmen’s car. “Most times, bank managers from targeted banks would come out in a hurry to assist them with arrest or to answer any question. Bank managers wouldn’t ask for identity cards because they see the EFCC branded vests.” Police recovered N11 million from Amira. Eleven SUVs were also recovered from the gang.
Amira confessed to investigators that if she was going for an operation, she would dress to kill, get a chauffeured car and relax in the ‘owner’s corner’ like a rich woman. She confessed that in that guise, nobody would doubt that she was a genuine business woman. The gang, however, frequented banks to carry out their operation in order to douse suspicion. Once they take the operator out of the banking hall into their vehicle, they would take his dollars and push him out of their vehicle.
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