Detectives at the Special Enquiry Bureau, Force Criminal Investigations Department, Alagbon, Lagos, have arrested three members of a notorious syndicate that specialises in stealing and diverting goods from unsuspecting dealers of various goods and disposing them to buyers all over the country.

The three suspects, Shoyombo Olutoyin, Taiwo Adeyemo and John Nma, were arrested, after they allegedly diverted bags of rice worth N9.5 million from a seller in Edo State, in the pretext that they were taking it to their church to sow seed.

They were alleged to have diverted a total of 280 bags of rice from one Isah Abdullahi and ended up donating 50 bags of the rice to a branch of the Redeemed Christian Church of God, RCCG, in Benin City, as a form of sowing seed, and made away with the remaining 230 bags, which they were about selling in a market at Mushin, Lagos before they were arrested.

Parading the suspects in Lagos, the Commissioner of Police in charge of SEB, Alagbon, Godwin Eze said, one of the suspects posed as the General Overseer of the church and ended up deceiving the seller after giving him a dud cheque to represent the amount he sold the rice.

According to him: “The suspects went to a rice market in Benin City, convinced the seller that they would buy 280 bags and lured him to the church, where they gave him the cheque.

“The story took a different dimension after the seller suspected that the cheque they gave him may not be genuine and came to the church, where they packed the bags of rice and saw just 50 bags. On enquiry, he was told that the people that brought the rice left with other bags. He reported to the incident police in Benin and they started an investigation.

“Fortunately, while they were busy working round the clock with Edo Police command, they did not know that the fraudsters were already at a popular market in Mushin, Lagos, negotiating to sell the bags of rice at N5 million.

“However, based on intelligence report, detectives at SEB, Alagbon, Lagos led by Ovie Akpoyibo tracked and arrested them at the market. They also recovered the 230 bags of rice. The investigation is ongoing to apprehend other members of the syndicate.” (Vanguard, excluding headline)

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