Femi Oso, an inmate at the Ibara Correctional Facility in Ogun State who is reportedly on death row, has been charged with utilizing a romance scam to defraud an unnamed woman in the state of N17 million.
Oso and the victim met over Facebook, and that after exchanging messages for a while, they started dating.
During the connection, it was discovered that Oso’s girlfriend gave him money in N17m worth of installment payments through a Point-of-Sale operator who went by the name of only Ayoola.
Along the way, the victim began to suspect foul play as she evaluated her relationship with Oso, who reportedly never told her he was an inmate. She later told her sister, who hasn’t been named, about her suspicions.
The victim’s sister then involved her husband, a serving officer with the Ondo State Police Command, who reported the case to the command’s Anti-Kidnapping Section for inquiry on the grounds that it appeared to be a romance scam.
The cops pursued the PoS operator to Ibara, Ogun State, where they apprehended him and transported him for questioning to their operating base in Akure, Ondo State.
It was discovered that during questioning, Ayoola admitted the money belonged to Oso and named two people—a school cleaner named Nofisat Adeosun and Oso’s brother-in-law known only as Segun—as people who frequently collected money from him at the prisoner’s direction.
Adeosun described her ordeal on Monday, saying that on February 8, 2023, she was at work when police stormed the building to arrest her. She also said that she was taken to their base in Akure.
“When the policemen detained me at the Ibara Baptist Nursery and Primary School, I asked what my offense was, and they said they would explain it to me when we got to their base in Akure,” she claimed.
Related News:
“When we arrived, they informed me that I had been detained as a result of a N17 million fraud committed by Femi Oso, an inmate at the Ibara Correctional Center. I was informed that Oso received the funds through Ayoola, a PoS operator.
“The police had arrested Ayoola and arrested me on the allegation that I knew about the fraud and I said I knew nothing about it. When I asked Ayoola at the station why he mentioned my name, especially when I am not aware of the money, he started pleading.”
The mother of two claimed that it took almost ten days for her to be able to call a family friend, Oluwafemi Adekunle, who arrived to get her bail along with his uncle Jide Ikumapayi.
Yet she went on to say that after being arrested, the school where she was employed as a maid fired her.
Commenting on the situation, Ikumapayi noted that while Adeosun’s arrest was regrettable, it was clear from the investigation that she was unrelated to the crime.
He continued by saying that Ayoola was also detained, along with Oso’s brother-in-law Segun, who had purportedly collected the N17 million from the PoS operator on behalf of his in-law for subsequent delivery to his sister, who was rumored to be still at large.
Because Adeosun works at a school that is closer to the jail than the Ibara Correctional Complex, he added, “When one of our family members was a prisoner there, we normally gave money to the PoS operator and she would help us transfer the money from the PoS operator to our person in prison.”
“That our individual and Femi Oso were imprisoned. Our individual fled after serving his entire sentence in jail. But because Oso, who is an inmate on death row, was aware that Adeosun usually assisted our person in collecting money from the PoS operator, he pleaded with her to assist him and occasionally she assisted whenever his family sent him money.
“So, when Ayoola, who runs the PoS shop close to the prison was arrested for the N17m fraud, he said he got to know Oso through Adeosun but refused to disclose that Adeosun knew nothing about the N17m. When we got to the police at Akure, Ayoola said it was Segun that collected the N17m from him and not Adeosun and that was how she was released on bail.”
Ikumapayi stated that Oso was not released due to his status as a prisoner on death row and that an investigation had also been expanded to the Ibara Correctional Center to bring him in for interrogation.
But, he claimed that efforts were being made to apprehend Oso’s wife, who had fled after learning that the police were after her.
When contacted, Funmi Odunlami, the police public relations officer for the Ondo State Command, confirmed the occurrence but stated that the issue was still under investigation.
“When I spoke with the officer in charge of the case, he said the case was ongoing and won’t say anything about it until they are through. He said he wants to finish the case so that those that needed to be paraded would be paraded,” Odulami said.