Police nab herbalist for ‘fraud, illegal possession of fake dollar notes’

Operatives of the Anti-fraud unit of the Zone 16 headquarters of the Nigerian Police have arrested a Port Harcourt, Rivers State-based herbalist, identified as Nnedim Ikechukwu for alleged fraud to the tune of N1.150billion and illegal possession of fake $1, 290,000.

According to the Police, while the anti-fraud unit were investigating the allegation of the fraud levelled against the suspect by one of his victims in Borokiri area of th3 State, the search at the suspect’s home in Omogwa community in same state showed that suspected fake dollars were hidden in two medium size boxes.

Sources within the zonal police headquarters revealed that the suspect, who is an indigene of Imo State, claimed to be Native Doctor and traditionalists and was contacted by two businessmen to provide them a spiritual charm that will make an expatriate give them a multimillion naira oil contract.

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According to the source, ”the Native Doctors charged them N550, 000 each for the job. And they paid him N1.6million. The suspect purportedly prepared the charm and sometimes in July, 2022, they claimed the charm worked and an expatriate businessman in Nigerian secured them an oil supply job worth 152 million dollars, which is equivalent to N1.150, 000,000.

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“After they were paid for the job, the complainants brought the 152million dollars to the suspect’s shrine at Omagwa for spiritual cleansing as directed by the suspect. But to their surprise, the suspect escaped with the whole dollars to Owerri, Imo State and refused to pick phone calls. They traced him and caught up with him. But he brought out fake dollars to replace the genuine dollars they gave him.”

It was also gathered that a team of detectives led by ASP Ubi Iwara, armed with signed search warrant, moved to the home of the suspect and the sum of $1,290,000 US dollars currency notes suspected to be fake were recovered in two medium size boxes hidden in one of the rooms.

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The Zonal Public Relations Officer of the Zone 16 command, CSP Ikwo Kelvin Lafieghe, while confirming the arrest, stated that “the zone 16 Police command has paraded a suspect allegedly involved in Advanced Free Fraud popularly called 419 and unlawful possession of fake dollars.”

The suspect, a 42 years old male, who hail from Imo State, was arrested following a tip-off from a victim he attempted to defraud,(Blue print)