9th July, 2010
The police at the Special Fraud Unit, Milverton, Ikoyi, Lagos Nigeria, have foiled an alleged attempt by a notorious fraudster to defraud an American (name withheld).
Police investigations revealed that the suspect identified as Hammed Abass but who claimed to be Smith Kujor allegedly called the American on phone that he had stolen a box containing $4.5 million in his late boss’ house in Togo when it was razed by fire and he would like to invest the money in his (the American’s) company.
The American, suspecting he was a fraudster, played along when the suspect showed him a box containing dark papers in form of dollars, a document titled World Wide Organisation, 143 Wall Street, Holla-Geneva, Switzerland and pieces of cotton wool covered with a powdery substance.
To convince his would-be-victim, Abass gave the American $400 as part of the money he changed from the dark papers.
When he demanded for $32,000 to buy some chemical solution that will change the remaining dark papers to dollars, the American fixed a date for the next meeting when he would be able to pay .
The American alerted the Special Fraud Unit and they set a trap for him.
According to plan, on 23 June at about 12:55 p.m., when Abass came to collect the money, he was shown a bundle of papers wrapped with dollars. The suspect fell for it and he was arrested by the police as he collected the marked money.
During interrogation, the suspect confessed to the crime and said his real name is Hammed Abass and not Smith Kujor.
—Paul Iyoghojie