By Odita Sunday
They were arrested and paraded by the Special Fraud Unit (SFU) of the Nigeria Police, Milverton Road, Ikoyi, following a petition addressed to the Commissioner of Police in charge of the unit, Mr. Tunde Ogunsakin.
Three other persons, Ofodeme Sylvester, Uzodimma Didimus and Onyekachi Samuel were also paraded for attempting to bribe the police to release the principal suspects, Ezeona and Eze.
Ezeona allegedly claimed to be an employee of the United States of America Embassy and offered to assist the complainant procure an American Visa.
The complainant, a female, then informed her husband and both of them raised the sum of $15, 615 (N2. 5 million), which they gave to Ezeona.
However, it was after Ezeona demanded for extra amount of money that the couple realized that he was a fraudster.
Detectives in SFU, upon receiving the petition, commenced investigation into the matter and arrested him last week.
They, however, discovered that 41-year-old Ezeonna also operated under a fake name, David Obiora Aniekwe that was boldly inscribed on a fake US Embassy Complimentary Card with designation as a Senior Systems Analyst.
The cards are at present with detectives as exhibit.
Further investigation revealed that Ezeonna allegedly used the bank account of 29-year-old Eze, his driver, to collect the money from his victim.
The prime suspect, Ezeona, who spoke to newsmen during their parade, denied the allegation levelled against him, saying that he was just a victim of circumstance.
The suspect, an indigene of Umunze in Anambra State, said: "The complainant's mother and I were lovers. We met at a political rally in Enugu and we started dating.
"Although she is 65 years old, she loved me dearly and even used to shower me with gifts so that I should not date anyone else.
"She had already started processing a US Visa for me to travel abroad and my driver had collected the money from her to give to Fatai.
"However, she later discovered that I was seeing someone else and this caused a serious fight between us and she said I must return all the gifts that she had given to me. "We did not see each other for a while but one day, she called me and said she missed me and she wanted us to settle our quarrel, so I went to see her.
"She said she would continue with the plans to sponsor me to the US and told her daughter to give me the money to pay one Fatai, who would help me to procure a US Visa, but I didn't know I was being set up."
Ezeonna, a student of National Open University, said he knew nothing about the fake complimentary card and that it could have been part of the plot to put him in trouble.
"This is Nigeria. Anybody can print a fake complimentary card and put any name on it. It's not evidence at all. It could even be part of the set up," he said.
GUARDIAN
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