Nigeria’s anti-graft agency, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) Ibadan zonal office, has nabbed three (3) persons for allegedly defrauding the Otun-Olubadan of Ibadanland, Oba Lekan Balogun.

The three suspects, namely Olufemi Lawal, Olusola Olaoye Babatunde and Babatunde Ologunja, as well as their accomplices still at large were accused of conspiring to dupe Balogun of huge sums of money amounting to about N300m.

The Ibadan high chief, who in the Olubadan-in-Council hierarchy, is next in line to the Olubadan. He was a senator that represented Oyo South Senatorial District on the platform of the Alliance for Democracy (AD) in National Assembly between 1999 and 2003.

His junioir brother, Dr. Kola Balogun, a current senator, had petitioned the anti-graft agency as a “concerned member of the Aliwo family”, soliciting for the EFCC’s intervention in crushing the syndicate and ensuring that its gang members bore the full brunt of the law for their alleged crimes.

The younger Balogun feared that the suspected fraudsters may have charmed his brother, owing to the fact that he was still unable to accept the reality of his situation.

This request became necessary because we believe strongly that the victim has been hypnotized; he is not in a position to admit it and his health condition is deteriorating,

the senator stated in the petition.

According to the anti-graft agency’s acting spokesman, Tony Orilade, preliminary investigations revealed that the suspects had consistently dispossessed the high chief of various sums of money from for the past four years.

According to findings, the sums of money were not directed to any particular project and the high chief never issued them any receipt to prove that any genuine transaction between the parties occurred.

Prior to their arrest, the criminal syndicate had allegedly collected about N300 million via bank transfers from their unsuspecting victim.

Orilade said the commission has designated four (4) vehicles and six (6) landed properties traced to their alleged fraudulent activities for possible forfeiture.

He added that the anti-graft agency was still trailing their fugitive accomplices.

Justin Nwosu

Justin Nwosu is the founder and publisher of Flavision. His core interest is in writing unbiased news about Nigeria in particular and Africa in general. He’s a strong adherent of investigative journalism, with a bent on exposing corruption, abuse of power and societal ills.