Photo: Couple dupe victims N20m in fake auction sales

The Lagos State Police Command has arrested a couple, Mr. Danladi Wushishi, and Mrs. Ojuolape Wushishi, for allegedly duping unsuspecting victims to the tune of N20m in fake auction sales in Lagos.

PUNCH Metro reports that while Ojuolape was arrested on Wednesday, June 18, at Odeogbolu Street, Ijegun, Danladi, was apprehended at Allen Avenue on Friday, June 25. The couple were arrested after a petition was sent to the Commissioner of Police, Umar Manko, from one of the victims, Mrs. Chinyere Uzorchukwu, who was allegedly duped by the couple to the tune of N5m.

The Special Anti-Robbery Squad operatives had subsequently gone on the trail of the couple and arrested them.

The Wushishis had allegedly collected money from their victims under the false pretext that they had a container load of goods meant for customs auction sales at one of the customs terminals in Lagos.

It was further learnt that prior to the incident, the couple normally took their victims to a fake customs’ warehouse in Ikorodu, Lagos, and showed them containers which were sealed. However, after payments had been made, the victims would wait endlessly expecting their goods, which never came.

Apart from Uzorchukwu, the police said the couple had also duped one Nkechi Anokwuru of about N3.5m and one Mr. Livinus of about N19m in the fake auction deals.

Danladi, 46, who hails from Niger State, confessed that he collected the money from the victims without having any goods anywhere.

He said:
“I am a businessman and I am also a freight forwarder at the Tin Can Island, Lagos. I have been doing this business for about eight years. The cargo in question has an allocation paper that read clothes, but when I got there, I saw that it only contained books.

Then, I called one Alhaji Issa, a clearing agent in Abuja, and he said the clothes could be in another container. But he added that I would pay N3.5m to get it. I then lied to my wife that I needed someone dealing in Okrika clothes as I had clothes to sell. That was how we met Chinyere. We first collected N1.35m from her, and then N800,000, and then N700,000.

I also collected N14m from Livinus in same transaction. But I never received any container since I started collecting money from this people. My wife is not aware that I was duping them.”

Ojuolape, 48, said her husband dragged her into the fraud mess as she never knew that the container they had in Ikorodu was empty.

She said:
“I was a trader at Ikotun. I usually bought goods (clothes) from Dubai and London. I have been doing this business for about seven years. I usually do it with my husband. About two months ago, my husband told me that there is an auction paper for second-hand Okrika clothes. So, I spoke with some people, who began to pay. But when we got to Ikorodu, we discovered that no container had Okrika clothes.

Ojuolape, mother of four, added that when she discovered that there were no clothes, she warned her husband.