The Kaduna Zonal office of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, today July 26, 2021 arraigned Mary Aweh and Olaleye Samuel Oluwadamilare before Justice M.T. Tukur of Kaduna State High Court, Kaduna on a six count charge bordering on advance fee fraud.
Count one of the charge reads, “that you Mary Aweh and Olaleye Samuel Oluwadamilare sometime in March, 2018 in Kaduna within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court, with intent to defraud did conspire to commit an offence to wit: obtaining a total sum of N 4,240,000 ( Four Million Two Hundred and Forty Thousand Naira) only from the duo of Asika Tochukwu Casmir and Daniel Alabi Monday under the false pretence that you can obtain Canadian visa for them which pretence you knew to be false and you thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 8(a) of the Advance Fee Fraud and Other Fraud Related Offences Act 2006 and punishable under the Section 1(3) of the same Act”.
The defendants pleaded not guilty when the charges were read to them, prompting the prosecution counsel, Jamil Musa to ask the court to fix a date for commencement of hearing. The defence counsel, A.L Damsaka however urged the court to grant his clients bail.
The judge granted bail to the defendants in sum of N2 million each and a surety in like sum. The sureties must be of good character and possess evidence of tax payment for the past three years.
They were remanded at the Correctional Centre pending the perfection of their bail terms.
The defendants, as promoters of Victoria Travels Resorts Ltd, allegedly obtained the said sum from Tochukwu Casmir Asika and Daniel Monday Alabi under the pretext of helping them to procure Canadian visas and other arrangements.
In 2018, the complainants engaged the defendants to arrange a trip to Turks and Caicos Islands. They paid him N1,000,000 each. Two days to their departure, the suspect informed them that the trip had been put on hold.
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She offered an alternative – a visa to Canada – which they accepted and paid N4, 240,000 each for visa, consultancy and air tickets. After a long wait, Olaleye called and delivered the so-called Canadian visa and Yellow Fever cards. He also informed them that they would be travelling through Kenya.
But upon arrival in Nairobi, Asika and Alabi were arrested by Kenyan Immigration officials for possession of fake Yellow Fever cards and detained.
Upon release, the duo made effort to contact the suspect to get her Kenyan representative to assist with the connecting flight to Canada but her phone lines were off. The complainants were re-arrested by Kenyan Immigration and deported to Nigeria.
