The police in Lagos State have arrested a 26-year-old painter, Moses Olaitan, who impersonated Oba Elegushi, Saheed Elegushi, to dupe an unnamed United Kingdom (UK)-based woman of N51 million.
The suspect and 48-year-old Segun Olusola had used the names and pictures of the Oba of Ikateland to collect the money from the woman for a fake marriage proposal and rites.
Olusola has since been arrested by the police, claiming to have only received N3.5million from the money.
The prime suspect, Olaitan had posed as Oba Elegushi and proposed marriage to the victim whom she met on Facebook.
Olaitan said that he was going through the Facebook account when he came across the lady and checked her profile and discovered that she was rich and that he could get money from her.
The suspect said “before then, I had some pictures of Oba Saheed Elegushi on my Facebook account. I downloaded more and changed my Facebook profile to perfect the purpose of what I wanted to do and I sent a friend request to her and she accepted me and we became friends. We chatted every day.”
He also continued that “one fateful day, I told her that she was beautiful and I wanted to marry her and that the only thing that would stop me from marrying her is that she would have to perform some traditional rites and it will cost us a lot of money which she agreed to perform.”
The suspect also stated that he was sleeping when the woman called her to send his account details for the marriage rites.
“I don’t have an account number, the first person that came to my mind was Mr Segun and I went to him and explained what I wanted to use the account for and I promised to give him some of the money after receiving it,” he added.
The suspect also continued that “a week after she sent the money into the account I provided and I gave him N2.1 million, while I took the remaining money.”
The state police boss, Hakeem Odumosu, who paraded the suspects before newsmen on Thursday said that the suspects stopped chatting with the victim after they had collected the money.
He assured that the suspects would be charged to court as soon as investigations are concluded.