Oyede Saheed, a lecturer at the Department of Insurance, University of Jos, has accused police officers attached to Adigbe Police Station, Abeokuta, Ogun State, of protecting Monday Agbebakun, who scammed N260,000 from him. 

He said Agbebakun disguised as the agent in charge of House 6, Ile Baba Ogbere, Saraki Adigbe, Abeokuta, to collect money from him on December 6, 2021, via a bank transfer. A receipt of the transaction obtained by FIJ showed that the money was paid in tranches. The first one was N240, 000, and the second was N20,000.

The accused showed Saheed an apartment after payment. But he learned he had been defrauded when the lecturer decided to move into his new apartment.

“On the day I was to move in, the landlord denied me entry on the grounds that he didn’t know the agent,” said Saheed.

He would later confirm the landlord’s claim after dragging Agbebakun to the house he had fraudulently rented to him.

FIJ learned that the fake agent resides on Olopo Merin Street in the Adigbe area of Abeokuta. When he would not return the money paid to him, the lecturer reported him to Adigbe Police Station, where preliminary information showed that he had criminal records.

Saheed said: “All efforts to collect my money back from him have proved abortive. I reported him to Adigbe Police Station in Abeokuta, where they confirmed to me that they know him well and that he is a serial offender.

“He specialises in committing such a crime, but the Adigbe police people only called him once on phone to come to their station, and he refused.”

Saheed told FIJ the police turned down his pleas to trace him to his house. Pained by this, he said he had lost confidence in the police officers at Adigbe Police Station.

“What I can rightly guess is that he is their customer at Adigbe Police Station,” Saheed said.

He told FIJ he would be glad if the matter could be transferred to Eleweran Police Station. “I want the man arrested and charged to court because he is notorious for defrauding people of their hard-earned money,” he said.

FIJ attempted to contact the accused, but his number was not reachable. Also a message sent to him had not been responded to at the time of filing this report.

Similarly, Abimbola Oyeyemi, the Ogun State police spokesperson did not respond to FIJ’s calls. At press time, he had also not responded to a message sent to his phone.