Operatives of the Anti-Kidnapping Unit of the Lagos State Police Command, working with a special squad, have arrested seven members of two fraud syndicates accused of targeting successful businessmen and businesswomen at markets across the state.
According to police, the gangs sometimes abducted their victims outright, holding them until a ransom was paid for their release.
The suspects described themselves as “local 419” operators, a term for local fraudsters, and admitted they preyed on the greed of Nigerians, particularly women, and their desire to make quick money.
Investigators say they recovered a list of more than 125 business operators from different Lagos markets who had been marked out as targets by one of the gangs.
Police say one gang lured a tyre merchant to the Aiyetoro-Itele area of Ogun State, held him captive, and collected roughly ₦24 million before releasing him.
The syndicate’s downfall came when they attempted a similar scheme on a cloth seller, luring him to the Ayobo area of Lagos. Officers from the Anti-Kidnapping Unit intercepted the operation and arrested three of the gang’s members on the spot.
A police source explained that although the two syndicates operated differently, their core method was the same: identifying prospective investors or traders, then defrauding them.
“The two groups use different tactics, but their mode of operation is that they target prospective investors or traders but end up defrauding them in the process,” the source said.
Several of the suspects told police they had themselves been defrauded before joining the criminal networks, blaming the losses for the collapse of their businesses and livelihoods.
Patrick Nwankwo, 61, from Imo State, said he turned to fraud after his second-hand clothing business collapsed and his wife died.
“I was into second-hand cloth selling at the popular Lagos market, Katangua. At a time, the business failed, and at that time, I lost my wife. I used the little money that was remaining with me to bury my late wife,” he said.
He described starting as a “caller”, a member of the gang who identifies and approaches prospective victims.
“I started as a ‘Caller.’ A caller is a person who goes out to identify and speak with our prospective victims. We identify businessmen. After this, we lied to them that someone was in need of a large supply of any particular commodity and for them to supply. We usually use bicycle spare parts as the needed commodity,” Nwankwo said.
He explained that once a victim supplied the goods to a “receiver” within the gang, the group would vanish.
“Another member of the gang will serve as the receiver. Once they supplied those items to him, we will disappear from that address,” he said.
Nwankwo also identified the gang’s target markets. “Our base is in Ogun State, but we target businessmen at popular markets, including Oshodi, Arena, Idumota, and Alaba Trade Fair Market. We already have our target and what they sell,” he said.
Asked how the gang found it so easy to deceive its victims, he replied bluntly: “We don’t pray for gullible people to finish. Gullible people cannot finish in Nigeria. They want to get very rich quick, and we take advantage of that.”
Emeka Obi, 60, said his role in the gang had shrunk with age.
“I used to be a caller, but now I am old. I only allow them to use my office for their operations and I get only ten per cent of whatever they get from their victims,” Obi said.
He said he too had once been a victim, having lost money in a fake-dollar scam while running a drug store.
“I was operating a drug store, but I was duped by a gang. When I got back to the same people who duped me, they asked me to join them, and I did,” he said. “After serving my boss for six years and having my own shop, somebody told me that they had drugs in large quantities, but when I got to where I was to get the drugs, I saw a large quantity of American dollars. I didn’t know that they were fake. I was asked to deposit the ₦400,000 that was with me. That was a large amount then, in 1990.”
He added: “Initially, after collecting my money, they ran away, but after they came back, I asked to join them, and since then I have made more than the ₦400,000 that I lost to them.”
Charles Okeke, 47, a shoemaker from Aba, Abia State, said he was drawn into fraud after being abandoned in Ghana by a trafficker.
“I joined in 2018, when I was duped while trying to travel out. I was taken to Ghana. Mr Eze took me to Ghana and abandoned me there. He promised to take me to Europe or America but abandoned me in Ghana,” Okeke said.
Struggling to survive, he said he fell in with other fraudsters. “I started looking for something to do. I met some Nigerians. I was doing shoe making, and the money was nothing to write home about. I met a boy, Chukwudi, and a Ghanaian, Jojome. They invited me to join them, and we duped people under the guise of washing money for them. They lured them with gold. We could not make enough money.”
Okeke said the death of his mother forced him back to Nigeria, where his family urged him to abandon the scheme a decision complicated by his declining fortunes and the breakdown of his marriage.
“Later my mother died, and I had to come back to Nigeria for her burial. When I came back, and my family saw my situation, they advised that I should not return to Ghana. They said that I was not doing well. They complained about me not making enough. Because of hardship, my wife left with my two children,” he said. He later reconnected with the Lagos-based syndicate through a contact from his hometown.
Emmanuel Ekenta, 53, from Awka, Anambra State, said he was defrauded while doing legitimate export business in Togo before being recruited into fraud himself.
“I was a successful businessman. I was exporting plates to Ghana then, and I was doing well. The problem started when I was duped at the Togo border. Ghana people and Igbo people duped me. They lied to me that they wanted to wash dollars for me in 2006,” he said.
He said the men who defrauded him later brought him into their network. “After I was duped, I requested to join them, and they directed me to their boss in Lagos. He is the one who taught me how to dupe. Taiye I worked with him for six years.”
Ekenta described the gang’s “dollar-washing” scam in detail: a member posing as a foreign sailor with goods to sell would lure a victim, then divert them to a hideout instead of the promised goods.
“What we do is that one of us, usually the catcher, will pose as a sailor and a foreigner who just arrived in Lagos with goods for sale. We then tell our prospective victim that she would make huge money by selling these non-existent goods. After agreeing to sell the goods, the catcher will pretend to take them to the place where the goods are kept, but instead take them to our base, where we introduce them to the dollar-washing business,” he said.
He said a second accomplice, known as the “sitter,” would reinforce the deception. “There is usually the ‘sitter,’ who usually sits at our base. He would corroborate whatever the catcher already told the victims. He would lie to them. He would pretend to be the younger brother of the customs officer that cleared the goods.”
Uchenna Paul, 46, a former foodstuffs seller, told police he joined the group after losing his employer’s money that he had been sent from Abia to Lagos to use for buying stockfish.
Police Response
Force spokesperson CSP Anietie Okokon Iniedu confirmed the arrests, saying the operation followed directives from the Inspector-General of Police, IGP Olatunji Rilwan Disu, who ordered a joint crackdown on the syndicates before the crime could spread further.
IGP Disu said crime “has no boundaries” and vowed that criminal elements would not be allowed to undermine Nigeria’s business environment, stressing the need to keep the country safe for commerce and investment.
