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Major cement distributor defrauded of N700M

By Maria Diamond
15 July 2017   |   4:21 am
The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Jimmy Azeez Enterprises Limited, Alhaji Jamiu Azeez was recently defrauded of the sum of N700, 000,000 by fraudsters through conspiracy and false pretences.His son, Kazeem Babatunde Aremu, manages their company in Ogun State.

The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Jimmy Azeez Enterprises Limited, Alhaji Jamiu Azeez was recently defrauded of the sum of N700, 000,000 by fraudsters through conspiracy and false pretences.His son, Kazeem Babatunde Aremu, manages their company in Ogun State.

Azeez said sometime in July 2014, one Kemi Abimbola Rufai became a registered customer. Investigations revealed that Kemi got into a relationship with Kazeem with the intention of defrauding the company.

Speaking to The Guardian, Kazeem said ‘’Kemi requested for a supply of two trucks of Cement worth N1, 980,000,000 but failed to pay as promised. Due to my relationship with her, I advised her on how to improve sales”.

Kazeem said the lady instead took him to one Alfa at Oju Ore area, in Sango Ota, Ogun State, where he was told that his father was using his glory to thrive in his business and insisted he should come for spiritual cleansing to set him free.

“I went for the cleansing at a river in Meiran area of Lagos state, and the Alfa asked me to pay N45, 000,000. After I left the place, I received a call from Alfa and Kemi that the money I gave to them has turned to Dollars and Euros and I should come to Oshogbo in Osun State. He warned me there would be implication if I do not come to collect the hard currencies”.

‘’I arrived Oshogbo at night and met Kemi and Alfa, with a group of men dressed in white reading the Quran. An elderly man among the group pointed a black box with Quranic inscriptions, claiming that, the box contained hard currencies, which I can only have access to upon the payment of $1,000,000. I paid the sum of three million naira to the group, through my Zenith Bank account in Oshogbo”.

“When I got to Lagos the next day, I began to look around for Bureau de-change agent, so as to get the $1,000,000 demanded by the group. I then took four hundred and seventy thousand dollars to Kemi’s house at No. 4 Harmony Estate, Aboru, Iyana IPaja, Lagos” he added.

Kazeem stated that, he paid a total sum of $820,000 to perform the ritual that was supposed to multiply the hard currencies in the box. Meanwhile, he had stopped remitting money to Dangote cement, and their company’s debt was piling up without the knowledge of his father until Dangote Cement closed their account.
Alhaji Azeez, narrated that he was shocked, immediately contacting Dangote cement to find out the why their account was shutdown.

“When I called the factory, I was told that we have not been paying for our supplies, hence, they would no longer supply us cement until we offset our debt. Immediately I went to the bank and obtained our statement of account, I was shocked to discover that my son had withdrawn about N700, 000,000. I collapsed and was rushed to the hospital.”

“When I regained consciousness, I filed a report with the State Criminal Investigation Department (SCID), Yaba, Agbowa Divisional Headquarter. While Azeez was still not discharged from the hospital, his brother chief Afonja Ramoni was handed his phone, and he received a call from an unknown caller who claimed to have heard of his ordeal and wants to help him.

Speaking to The Guardian, Chief Afonja said he pretended to be Alhaji Azeez and he was told to come to Oshogbo in Osun State for help on how to recover his money. The policeman handling the case suspected the caller was one of the fraudsters and they went with him to Oshogbo.

“On getting to the place in Oshogbo, it turned out to be a shrine. The lady in charge asked if I was really Alhaji Jamiu Azeez, and I said yes. She told me a senior member of their cult mandated them to help me out of my predicament through spiritual powers. Thereafter, the police arrested her with the other gangs.Information gathered revealed that, some of the arrested members of the group bribed some police officers with N8, 000,OOO and they were released.

This development prompted Alhaji Azeez, to file a fresh petition with EFCC and the IGP’s Monitoring Unit. Some of the suspects have been arrested by the operatives of the Inspector General of Police (IGP) Monitoring Unit EFCC, and were arraigned in court for prosecution last year.

The suspects were arraigned for kidnapping and obtaining money by false pretense, robbery, and threat to life. According to the police source, the suspects, in a written statement, confessed to the allegation of conspiracy and obtaining money under false pretense.

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