Matilda Omonaiye/
Three Nigerian men posing as oil dealers have been held by operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) after they allegedly duped a Ghanaian of N20millon.
Identified as Otuma Firstborn, Stephen Okonkwo and Aniekan Udoh, the suspects were arrested in Port Harcourt, Rivers State.
According to EFCC spokesman, Wilson Uwujaren, trouble started when the Ghanaian, Solomon Lamptey, wrote a petition accusing the suspects of presenting themselves as genuine crude oil sellers from the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC).
Lamptey allegedly came to Nigeria in November 2017 seeking authentic suppliers of crude oil. In his quest, he met Firstborn who demanded and collected an initial sum of $1,800 and an additional sum of N500,000 for what he called “Notice of Readiness for two vessels”: MT Skamandras and MT Toledo Spirit.
The vessels were to deliver the crude oil to Lamptey in Ghana.
Aside the initial money, Lamptey allegedly made further payment of $56,000 ( N20,000,000) as logistics to move the vessels from Nigeria to Ghana.
Otuma acted as a link to Okonkwo, who allegedly used his company, Rextronics Nigeria Limited to collect a sum of N13,000,000 out of the money Lamptey paid for the crude oil.
Udoh also took his own share of the money. Some documents purportedly issued by NNPC were handed over to the petitioner and they include: Notice of Readiness( NOR); Authority to Board Vessel( ATB), Sales Purchase Agreement. All the documents were confirmed to be fake.
The suspects are in the custody of the EFCC and would soon be charged to court.
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