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He is a secondary school leaver, but at 19, Bashiru Jimmy Omitokun is already the leader of an internet fraud syndicate that specializes in defrauding women, especially widows who are desperate to find love again. Omitokun and his accomplice, Oladapopu Wasiu,Dopemu Rasheed Lukman and Fatia Ganiu will-spend the next 12 years behind bars for defrauding a widow of French nationality of 17,400 dollars (about N2.16 million) under false pretence.
The suspects were sentenced without option of fine at the Ikeja High Court by Justice Olubunmi Oyewole. They had early been arrested by operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), who charged them to court after investigation.
It was learnt that Omitokun, operating with the name Mike Edward, an American resident in Texas, met the widow, a mother of two on a dating set on the internet.
Omitokun who posed as an elderly person, opened a chat with the woman and while it lasted, promised to bring her out of her grief and that he was going to love her and make her feel wanted again.
Operatives disclosed to The Nation that the widow, who thought that the suspect was genuine, fell for his lies. Omitokun it was gathered cashed in on the fact that the unsuspecting woman had fallen in love with him to perfect his plan to dupe her.
Commenting on the arrest, the spokesman of the commission, Mr. Osita Nwaja said when the suspect was convinced that the widow had fallen in love with him, he started telling her about a contract that he had with the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), which he was in the country to execute and how his money was tied up in a bank and can not be accessed for the propose of the transaction. The suspect pleaded with the widow to assist him with some money to execute the contract with a promise to return same the moment he is paid for the job.
He also allegedlytold the woman to send him a laptop as he would need it to be in contact with her wherever he was. Nwaja revealed that the widow who was already madly in love, obliged without wasting any time. She sent the money in batches as the suspect kept demanding and later the laptop. However, after dating on the internet for some months, the widow requested that Omitokun should take a time off to come and see her as she would love to behold the man that had stolen her heart. It was learnt that at this invitation to come over to France to visit the widow, Omitokun stopped chatting with her. All effort by the widow to communicate with the suspect proved abortive and it then occurred to her that she may have been duped.
According to Nwaja, after the discovery, the victim petitioned the commission and the search for the suspect began. The widow in the process remembered that the suspect gave her pass word to his e-mail address. She opened it and to her amazement discovered that she had been dealing with a 19-year old and she was also able to get his real photograph, which she forwarded to the EFCC.
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