73-Yr-Old CBN Retiree Duped N10m, Recounts Ordeal

[Shola Sholaz]

Operatives of the Special Fraud Unit, SFU, Ikoyi, Lagos have smashed a syndicate which specialised in defrauding members of the public by sending congratulatory text messages for winning jackpots in non-existent promos.
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The syndicate's victim that led to their arrest is a 73- year-old retiree of Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, identified simply as Pa Steven, a United States of America returnee, who was reportedly swindled of N10 million.
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The unit's spokesman, Ngozi Nsiotume Agun, a Deputy Superintendent of Police, DSP, said a suspected member of the syndicate, Philip Ikechukwu Orji, was arrested at the verge of withdrawing an amount paid into his account by the victim.
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The victim in a petition to the unit, explained that he received a text message supposedly from Airtel on September 16, 2011 that he had wonN2 million for using up to N200 in two weeks in its ongoing promo, with batch number A17.