Police nab suspected fraudsters, cultist, financier in Delta

The Delta State Police Command has said it arrested a four-man fraud syndicate, a suspected cultist, and an alleged financer of a bagger cult group in the state.

The Delta State Police PPRO, DSP Bright Edafe disclosed this to newsmen in a statement on Wednesday.

Edade said following continued cult clashes in Sapele, Oghara, and some other parts of the State, the Commissioner of Police Delta State CP Ari Muhammed Ali FCIA, psc+ deployed tactical teams to Sapele LGA to restore sanity in the affected areas.

The police narrated that on 23/01/2023 at about 2000hrs, acting on credible intelligence on an alleged sponsor of the Aro bagger cult group and also an active member of the group, a combined team of the Command Special Anti-Cult Unit (SACU), operatives of the Department of State Service (DSS) and men of Operation Delta Hawk, stormed the above mentioned Hotel, trailed and arrested one Chief Joseph Ologbo ‘m’ 37yrs of Otor Community in Sapele LGA, a renowned suspected financer and member of Aro Bagger cult group.

The statement noted: “When the search was extended to his fully tinted Toyota Tundra Van, one unlicensed pump action gun, two live cartridges, one expended cartridge, and an Aro Bagger cult regalia were recovered.

PPRO said the suspect had made a useful statement and would be charged in court upon completion of the investigation.

In a related development, on 22/01/2023 at about 0800hrs, operatives of Decoy Squad led by ASP Julius Robinson acting on credible intelligence on a syndicate who specialized in defrauding unsuspecting victims of their hard-earned money, the operatives stormed Ogwashi-Uku town and arrested the following suspects; Allison Louis ‘m’ 27yrs a native of Numan LGA of Adamawa state, Sunday David ‘m’ 22yrs a native of Oturkpo Benue state, Peter Akagbai ‘m’ 20yrs from Umuokwe Quarters of Ogwashi-Uku and Chibuzor Elumeze ‘m’ 23yrs from Ogbenta-Obi Quarters in Ogwashi-Uku.

According to the police, the exhibits recovered from the syndicate included one (1) tricycle and fifteen (15) different bank ATM cards.

Edafe further stated that during the investigation, the suspects confessed to a series of frauds committed within the Ogwashi-uku and Asaba metropolis with POS operators and filling stations as their major victims.

The suspects stressed that they go to filling stations, POS operators, and supermarkets, purchase items and also make withdrawals with their ATM cards and then call their banks and gave a false complaint that the transaction was not successful.

The police spokesman said: “the banks without due investigation will then wrongly debit the victims and credit the accounts of the suspects. They have so far defrauded their various victims several millions of naira. The investigation is ongoing.”