NIGERIA: Fake Currency Syndicate Arrested in Lagos.

MONDAY was a day of reckoning for five-man syndicate that deals in counterfeit dollar, naira and other international denominations.

The gang was caught when the Commander in charge of the Lagos State Police Command Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS), Mr. Abba Kyari, a Superintendent of Police, (SP) received an information that a syndicate, which specializes in printing different fake notes of various denominations both in local and foreign currencies, operates at No. 6 Ogunlana Street, Alagbado, Lagos.

Kyari and his men, who swiftly swung into action, led his team of operatives to the address where intense surveillance yielded fruits with the arrest of the five suspects.

The suspects were 28-year-old Femi Jacob, Ramon Adeoye, 20,  and Akeem Ayodabo, who is 42years old.

Others were 38-year-old Isaka Usman and Onyeka Ibe who is 37.

No fewer than eight printing machines, cutting machines and a large number of fake notes in different denominations valued at about N100million were displayed by the police. The currencies were recovered in a three-bed room rented house of one of the suspects, Akeem Ayodabo.

Although Onyeka Ibe was not one of the printers of the fake notes, but he is a specialist vendor of the currencies, who usually comes from Anambra State to purchase them from Akeem in large quantities.

The kingpin, Akeem, told newsmen that he had many customers who usually come from countries such as Republic of Benin, Ghana, Mali, Togo, Liberia and Sierra Leone to buy the currencies.

The Lagos State Commissioner of Police, Alhaji Umar Manko, who paraded the suspects, noted that the breakthrough was an intelligence-driven one.

“They told us that they have customers who come from different African countries to purchase these notes from them. We will work with Interpol to see how we can jointly check them. Investigation is still on and we must make sure that we break the wings of these syndicates,” Manko said.

Akeem, a native of Oyo town in Oyo State, said: “People call us to make orders before we print the currencies for them. We sell N100,000 fake naira note for N3,000. One My Yaya Lexus, who is now late, thought me the job. We print Dollars, Euro, Pounds, Cephas, and Naira. Our buyers are fraudsters and Bureau de Change operators. There is no profit in the business because we buy materials for these fake currencies very costly. We are not making too much money from the deal. One Ibrahim, a Bureau de Change operator is one of our customers also.”

Recently, the Lagos State Police Command arrested an employee of the Nigerian Security Printing and Minting Company, Osakpolo Igbinosa for allegedly being in possession of fake N900, 000 notes.

The father of three said the fake money was among those that were yet to reach the final stage of printing by the Nigerian Security and Minting Company (NSPMC).

The suspect, a material security officer in the government agency, said he had been perpetrating the criminal act since 2010 until the police in Ikorodu arrested him.

[THE GUARDIAN]