Crimes

EFCC: We didn’t collect $107,000 bribe from Abuja internet fraudster

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has denied receiving $107,000 as a bribe from a suspected internet fraudster, Ezekiel Joseph Oyo, in Abuja.

This was contained in a statement issued by the Head, Media and Publicity, EFCC, Dele Oyewale, on Friday, November 3, 2023.

Oyewale described the purported $107,000 ascribed to EFCC investigators as untrue, adding that the claims made against investigators at the Abuja Zonal Command of the anti-graft agency were mere trumped-up fabrications and should be ignored.

Narrating the suspect’s arrest, Oyewale disclosed that the Abuja Zonal Command of the EFCC arrested Oyo on April 5, 2023, at the Life Camp area of Abuja, sequel to discreet surveillance and actionable intelligence on his suspected involvement in internet fraud, called Picking2, online romance, and money laundering.

The EFCC spokesman said the suspected internet fraudster was introduced to the fraudulent practice through one of his friends, Bruno, based in Germany.

He added: “To ply his nefarious business, he opened a wallet address with a user name: Hubert.elwood@outlook.com. Through this wallet address, he received into his blockchain, a total fraudulent transaction of $3,982,260.91.

“He got the money from Remitano, a Visual Digital Company based in Seychelles on March 3, 2023. He benefitted $50,000 from the fraudulent bitcoin business.

“Upon his arrest, investigators at the Abuja Zonal Command of the Commission undertook his detailed profiling, granted him administrative bail with two sureties provided by him. It took his sureties three weeks to meet up with some modest bail conditions offered to them and Oyo was released after the conditions were met.

“Investigators recovered a total sum of $27,000 from him and the recovery was duly reported and documented.

“It is a blatant lie that investigators provided sureties for him. Would Sureties provided by investigators spend three weeks to perfect Oyo’s bail conditions, if indeed they were provided by them?

“The purported $107,000 ascribed to EFCC investigators is untrue and unfounded. How could a suspect who benefitted $50,000 from his transactions offer $107,000 as bribe? Every wild claim made against investigators at the Abuja Zonal Command are mere trumped-up fabrications and should be ignored.”

Oyewale stated that all items recovered from Oyo, including a Mercedes Benz C43 AMG, are in the custody of the EFCC.

The EFCC spokesperson added that the suspect jumped bail, noting that efforts are being made to bring him to trial for money laundering offences.

The Star