Taiwo Jimoh 
A 26-year-old painter, Moses Olaitan, has been arrested for allegedly using the name and pictures of Oba Saheed Elegushi of Ikate land in Lagos to dupe a United Kingdom- based lady of N51 million under the pretence of marrying her as the monarch. Olaitan was arrested alongside his accomplice, Segun Olushola (48), for providing the bank account used in receiving the money from the victim.
The suspect said he was going through his Face Book account when he came across the lady, checked her profile and discovered that she was rich. Olaitan said he realised that the only way to get money from her was to use a popular mon-arch in Lagos to get her. He said: “Before then, I have some pictures of Oba Saheed Elegushi on my Face Book but I downloaded more and changed my profile to suit the purpose of what I wanted to do. I then sent a friend request to her and she accepted me and we became friends. We chatted every day. “One fateful day, I told her she was beautiful and I wanted to marry her.
But before I could marry her, she would have to perform some traditional rites which would cost us a lot of money. She agreed to perform it, saying she loved me and promised to do whatever I asked her to do. I told her it would cost us N51 million and she obliged to send the money to me.” Olaitan said, surprisingly, he was sleeping one fateful day when he received a phone call from her that he should send his account details to her. He added: “I don’t have account number; the first person that came to my mind was Mr. Segun. I went to him and explained what I wanted to use the account for.
I promised to give him out of the money after receiving it. A week after she sent the money into the account I provided and I gave him N2.1 million, while I took the remaining money.” The accomplice, Olushola, a commercial bus driver, said the only role he played was the account number he gave Olaitan to receive the money. The state Commissioner of Police, Hakeem Odumosu, who paraded the suspects before journalists yesterday at the command headquarters, Ikej.
Odumosu said the suspects carefully planned it and pretended to be Oba Saheed Elegushi of Ikate land and duped the lady, claiming they wanted to perform some traditional rites before she could become the oba’s wife. The police chief said gullibly the lady sent the money to one of them and after receiving the money they absconded and seized to talk to lady.
He added: “We were able to arrest them after receiving a petition from the victim. Olaitan was tracked through his phone to his girlfriend’s house where we picked him. He led us to Olushola’s house. He was also arrested.” The commissioner said the suspects would be arraigned after completion of the investigations into the matter.
