By Christopher Oji
Operatives of the Rapid Response Squad (RRS) of the Lagos State Police Command have arrested the ring leader and architect of several bank frauds in Lagos State.
The suspected fraudster, Ajisafe Olugbenga 47, who hails from Osun State was alleged to be the mastermind in several bank frauds.
Ajisafe, an ex-banker popularly known as Harrison among his gang, was arrested yesterday after being mentioned as the initiator of SIMs swap deal at a network provider’s outlet in Surulere, Lagos and Abeokuta, Ogun State.
Ajisafe had, before his arrest, been on the run over his involvement in a N2 million fraud in one of the old generation banks in Lagos State sometime in April 2016.
The suspect, who is regarded as the chief player in bank frauds, was alleged to have a vast network with insiders in banks. He was also alleged to have exploited his vast network with insiders in banks to procure bank details of high networth customers and then use such information to perpetrate the fraud.
According to sources, the gang blocks or swaps SIMs of bank customer they want to strike, so that they would not receive the transaction alert, as money are withdrawn from their accounts in tranches.
Ajisafe latest offence was the recruitment of three suspects through which some SIM cards belonging to a particular network (name withheld) were being swapped and used for bank fraud.
Two of the suspects recruited by Ajisafe, Shamsudeen Olalekan 35 and Nicholas Egbele, were arrested a few days before Ajisafe was picked up yesterday.
Also arrested with them was a staff of a popular network provider in an outlet in Abeokuta, who was assisting the gang in SIM swap, while another collaborator is on the run.