Date Published: 05/10/10

EFCC nabs fake Army General over N90m fraud

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, has arrested a fake Army General who has been defrauding unsuspecting Nigerians with cloned originals of property titles from Abuja Geographical Information Service, AGIS.

The suspect, Sylvanus Enunche, 62, was picked by operatives of the EFCC from Keffi prison, Nasarawa state, where he is being detained as an awaiting trial inmate on account of a N17 million land fraud for which he was docked at a Magistrate court , Karu, Nasarawa State .

Enunche who had been parading himself as a retired Army General  changed his story in the course of interrogation by EFCC operatives, saying that he retired from the army in 2006 as a major. But the army authority has since refuted his claims and said that his service records could not be traced. 

The modus operandi of the fraudster was to go to AGIS to get the original Certificates of Occupancy of properties in choice areas of Abuja such as Maitama and Asokoro districts and produce counterfeit copies from the original obtained. Enunche’s latest victim, Mr. Nnoduka Eruchachi, paid the sum of N90 million (Ninety million naira only) for a plot of land in Maitama district of Abuja .

The land with CofO number 1c5iwd-Be1r62d1r-ch1cu-10 and file number EN 10227 which originally belonged to Donatus Ikechukwu Oguejiofor was signed by Nasir Ahmed El- Rufai, former FCT minister and dated 18 th August, 2006.

When Eruchachi visited AGIS to authenticate the genuineness of the photocopy of the property documents, he discovered the originals actually existed, and with this, his doubts were allayed. So he paid the agreed price of N90 million to Enunche in two instalments.

At the point of development of the plot of land, Eruchachi wrote to AGIS to get the necessary approval. It was at that point that he was told that the land in question belonged to Donatus Ikechukwu Oguejiofor; he was also told that there was no record any where that the said plot of land had been sold by the rightful owner.

It was this development that prompted Eruchachi to petition the EFCC and reported the land deal. The suspect was eventually arrested and has been giving useful information to his interrogators.

Enunche, in one of his statements dated December 8, 2009, who claimed that his real name is Donatus Ikechukwu said “I applied to the Federal Government through the minister then, Lt. Gen. J. T. Oseni who allocated the property to me in 1995. I went to perfect the document in the year 2003 and given the certificate in the year 2007, before I sold it to Mr. Nnoduka in 2009 July 3……”

In yet another statement to the EFCC, he said he bought the land with the name Sylvanus Enunche from Donatus Ikechukwu Oguejiofor for the sum of N50 million in 2008 and paid him once with Intercontinental Bank cheque.

The EFCC sent a letter to the bank to inquire if indeed he had an account with Intercontinental Bank and if he paid such an amount for a landed property. The bank in a letter dated April 6, 2010, denied knowledge of the fraudster. The letter reads in part: “We have gone through our records and could not trace any account with the name Sylvanus Enunche”.

In yet another statement on Friday, May 6, 2010, Enunche opened up for the first time when he told EFCC operatives that “I did business with the land. It was business”.

Asked to explain his modus operandi, he said his lawyer friend,  who has links with AGIS would bring original documents of properties in Maitama and Asokoro districts  to him, he would then “rebuild the documents and sell it to people who do not know the difference”. Enunche is being held by the Commission on a court order preparatory to his prosecution.  

Femi Babafemi

Head, Media & Publicity

9/5/2010