Ex-Kwara state LG councillor nabbed for car theft

A former councillor in the Ekiti Local Government Area of Kwara State, Opeyemi Adeojo, has been arrested by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission.
   

   
Adeojo was identified as the leader of a car theft syndicate notorious for stealing vehicles from dealers by pretending as genuine buyers.

The EFCC said it had been on the trail of members of the syndicate after a series of petitions against his gang’s criminal activities were treated by the Ibadan zonal office of the commission.

No fewer than three cases of car theft were established against the syndicate, with all the vehicles involved recovered and kept in the commission’s custody in Ibadan.

Investigations revealed that the gang was using similar tricks to dispossess the dealers of their vehicles.
   

   
According to the EFCC, Adeojo often pretend to be a medical doctor, adopting different names and institutions as his place of work to appear responsible and create a false sense of confidence to penetrate the victims.

One of the cases involved a Toyota Avensis wagon car, with Adeojo allegedly claiming to be one Dr Gboyega Omojola of the University College Hospital, Ibadan.

The case was reported to the Ibadan office of the EFCC on March 23, 2019, by Tunde Adejuwon, an Ibadan-based car dealer.

According to the petitioner, ‘Dr Omojola’ had come in company with one Babatunde Oni, his supposed driver, to his car mart to negotiate the price of the car and later agreed to pay N2m for it.
   

   
After the agreement, ‘Dr Omojola’ issued a Skye Bank cheque for N2m in favour of the dealer and ordered his ‘driver’ to pay it into his Zenith Bank account at Bodija.

Oni later came with a copy of the deposit teller.

It was later discovered that the payment was not approved as the payer used a cloned cheque for the transaction.

Unfortunately, the decline did not come until after the gang had escaped with the vehicle.
Punch