The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), has helped a 70-year-old widow and retiree, Mrs Margret Taye Odofin, to recover ₦42,500,000, which an investment officer, then an employee of a new generation bank, Mrs Kehinde Olawale Yusuf, defrauded her.
The recovery followed a painstaking search for Mrs Yusuf, first by the victim and later the EFCC as she went underground and relocated to the UK after perpetrating the fraud.
The fraud, according to Odofin’s petition to the anti-graft was perpetrated under the guise of investing the sum in phoney ponzi scheme in which she would be awarded N1.7 million quarterly in returns.
Unknown to the widow, the banker had allegedly diverted ₦47 million from her account into multiple bank accounts without authorisation.
Despite her escape abroad, EFCC operatives were able to trace and recover ₦42.5 million from the fraudulent transactions, which has now been formally returned to the rightful owner.
The symbolic handover of a bank draft of ₦42,500,000 took place on Thursday at the Kaduna Zonal Directorate of the Commission, where the EFCC’s Acting Director, Bawa Kaltungo, presented the recovered funds on behalf of the Executive Chairman, Mr Ola Olukoyede.
“I cannot believe this because when we reported the case in the United Kingdom, they told us the offence was committed in Nigeria and advised us to contact the EFCC.
“Today, God has used the Commission to wipe away my tears. I have waited for years to get my hard-earned money back,” she said.
“I thank Mr Ola Olukoyede for the excellent job he is doing. I will campaign for the EFCC anywhere because today they have given me every reason to believe the Commission is truly working,” an emotional Odofin stated.
