Woman, 39, who swindles church of N100m arrested

By Lanre Adesanya

The police in Ogun State have arrested a 39-year-old woman, Onyinyechi Iwuagwu, for allegedly swindling a church-based organisation of N100million.

Onyinyechi, the police said, had defrauded MIA Enterprises of the sum on the pretext of assisting the organisation to raise money for charity.

Police spokesman Abimbola Oyeyemi, a Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP), said Onyinyechi’s arrest followed a petition to Commissioner Ahmed Illiyasu, from the organisation’s lawyer, Godswill Ojakovo.

Oyeyemi said in a statement yesterday that the lawyer reported that the suspect claimed to have a Local Purchase Order (LPO) from a company known as Location 3 Properties and appealed to MIA Enterprises to fund the LPO.

“Consequently, N33,118,000 was transferred to her online,” Oyeyemi said.

He added: “While the organisation was awaiting the repayment of the above amount, the suspect came with other LPOs she purportedly got from Ancillia Catholic Hospital, Iju, Lagos and Holifull School, Ikorodu, Lagos, upon which another sum of N77 million was given to her after showing relevant documents and proof to back her claims.

“He stated further in the petition that as soon as she got the last payment in September 2018, the suspect disappeared. This prompted the church to make discreet enquiries about the LPOs submitted and found out that they were forged.”

Oyeyemi said Illiyasu, upon receipt of the petition, directed the monitoring team to go after the suspect, adding that she was trailed and arrested on January 21.

“The suspect confessed to the crime during interrogation. She admitted that the LPOs presented by her were forged, as most of the companies where she claimed to have gotten the LPOs were only imaginary. The CP has directed the team to arraign the suspect as soon as investigation is concluded,” said Oyeyemi.