Suspected fraudsters allegedly assault sales agent for rejecting fake currency

A 31-year-old man, Ebuka Eze, who allegedly gave the sales representative of an online mobile phone store based in Ikeja, Lagos, State, Matthew Adewoto, the beating of his life, was brought before an Ogba Magistrate Court, Lagos, yesterday.

Charged along with Eze for the same crime is Emmanuel Obi.

Eze was alleged to have become violent when Adewoto refused to collect fake naira notes from him.

Eze was said to have placed an order for four phones worth N900,000 on May 2, 2019 from the store. The phones were Samsung S7, iPhone X, iPhone 7 plus and iPhone Xr.

Adewoto, a dispatch rider with the phone store, had gone to Ajah in the evening to deliver the phones to the defendant, who paid him a sum of N400,000 and promised to pay the balance later.

But the dispatch rider, according to police prosecutor Ben Emuri, mthen discovered while he was counting the currency notes that they were fake and raised an alarm.

Eze was alleged to have become furious with Adewoto’s alarm and, in company of two others beat up the dispatch rider.

Adewoto stated, “When I got to Ajah that day, the customer (Eze) asked me to meet him near an eatery. A man came to pick me up there and said his boss who ordered the phones asked him to bring me to his place. On meeting the so-called boss, I gave the phones to him, he checked them and paid me.

“As I was counting the money he gave me, I noticed they were fake N1,000 notes. I told him (Eze) that the money was fake and that I could not collect it. He started beating me and later zoomed off in a car with two other persons who were with him.”

The incident was reported at the Ajah police division and the police launched a manhunt for Eze. He was arrested on May 27, 2019, along with one Emmanuel Obi, whom he reportedly gave one of the phones.

Eze told the police that he collected N100,000 from Obi, who wanted to buy a laptop with the money, and he exchanged it with counterfeit notes from his accomplice in the Obalende area of Lagos Island.

He was said to have admitted that he bought a laptop and four phones with the fake money, adding that he gave the laptop and a phone to Obi.

The police quoted Obi as saying, “I knew that the money Ebuka (Eze) paid to the delivery man was fake. We were together in the business.

After he bought the laptop with fake money, I told him I was not interested in the business again. Police arrested me with the iPhone X that he gave me.”

The police brought Eze and Obi before the court on a two-count charge of unlawful possession of fake currency and assault.

The defendants pleaded not guilty to the charges and were granted bail by Chief Magistrate Sule-Amzat, in the sum of N200,000 each with two sureties in like sum.

Sule-Amzat adjourned case till October 28, 2019. the