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| Olugbenga |
A former banker, Ajisafe Olugbenga and his partners
in crime have been arrested for involvement in multiple bank frauds in Lagos
State.
The suspect, Ajisafe Olugbenga, 47, was arrested by operatives
of Rapid Response Squad (RRS), Ikeja, Lagos State Police Command.
Those arrested in connection with the crime are Michael
Adeoye, Ayo Olalekan, Israel Ochenehi, Adegbenro Opeyemi, Obong Udeme-Obot and
Peter Ezurike.
The police described Olugbenga as ring leader and
architect of several bank frauds in Lagos State.
The police disclosed that several suspects arrested
for fraud, have always fingered Olugbenga.
A police source said: “Olugbenga, an ex – banker, known
as Harrison among his gang, was arrested on Tuesday after he was mentioned as
the initiator of SIM swap deals at a network provider’s outlet in Surulere,
Lagos and Abeokuta, Ogun states. The suspect, before his arrest, has been involved
in a N2 million fraud in one of the old generation banks in Lagos State
sometime in April, 2016. He is regarded as the chief distributor of roles in
all the bank frauds. He has a vast network with insiders in banks.”
The police further alleged that Olugbenga exploited
his vast network with insiders in banks to procure bank details of high net
worth customers.
“It is this information such as account balance,
account number and phone number of the owner and email that the gang works on
to perpetrate frauds,” said the source.
It was gathered that the gang’s modus operandi is to
swap or blocks SIMs of a bank customer, so that the customer wouldn’t receive any
transaction alert on the account. The police said that such frauds were mostly
perpetrated on a weekend. The money was usually withdrawn in tranches.
The police
said: “Before this, the bank insider, who has his or her cut on every
transaction, would have helped the gang to increase the customer’s withdrawal
limit. When the suspected fraudsters were arrested, several print outs of
customers details were discovered with them. The balances on all the print outs
was over N800 million.”
Olugbenga recruited three men through which some SIM
cards, belonging to a particular network, were being swapped and used for some
of the gangs’ bank fraud.
Two of the suspects recruited; Shamsudeen Olalekan and
Nicholas Egbele were arrested few days Olugbenga.
Also arrested with them is an official of a popular
network provider in an outlet in Abeokuta. He has been assisting the gang in SIM
swapping, while another collaborator is on the run.
Olalekan and Egbede have disclosed that they were
promised N20, 000 for every SIM card swapped for the gang.
The two
suspects explained that once they provided their passport photographs to
Olugbenga, he would get them national ID cards, with names of banks’ account
holders. This is to be accompanied with sworn affidavit on loss of SIM card.
The police said that several details of bank
customers sent via SMS to Olugbenga’s line by some people believed to be banks’
insiders have been retrieved from his phone.
Olugbenga reportedly said: “About a year ago, Joe
Calabar approached me that he needed someone in bank to increase limit (daily).
I spoke to a friend Chima, who was in bank. Both of us met Israel at a joint in
Skakhor. The following day, we were all to meet to give a form to Chima. I
noticed that too many calls were coming into my line, so I didn’t turn up for
the meeting. It was later that I heard RRS has arrested Chima.”
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