Ex-Kwara State lawmaker and alleged car theft kingpin captured by EFCC (Photo)

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

Adeojo was fingered as the leader of a car theft syndicate notorious for stealing vehicles from car dealers through pretence as genuine buyers. Until his arrest recently, the EFCC had been on his trail after series of petitions against his gang’s criminal activities were considered by the Commission’s Ibadan zonal office.

No fewer than three cases of car theft have been established against the syndicate, with all the vehicles involved recovered and kept in the Commission’s custody in Ibadan. Investigations revealed that the gang deploys similar pattern of tricks to steal vehicles from their victims.

According to EFCC’s findings, Adeojo often pretend to be a medical doctor, adopting different names and different institutions as his place of work to appear responsible and create false sense of confidence to penetrate the victims. One of the many cases reported involved a Toyota Avensis wagon car in which Adeojo claimed to be one Dr. Gboyega Omojola of the University College Hospital, Ibadan.

The case was reported to the EFCC, Ibadan office on March 23, 2019, by Tunde Adejuwon, an Ibadan-based car dealer. According to the petitioner, ‘Dr. Omojola’ had come in company of one Babatunde Oluwatope Oni, his supposed driver, to his stand to negotiate for the car and later agreed to pay N2,000,000 for it.

After the agreement, ‘Dr. Omojola’ issued a N2m Skye Bank Cheque ostensibly in favour of the dealer and ordered his ‘driver’ to pay it into his Zenith Bank account at Bodija, Ibadan. Oni later came with a copy of the Zenith bank deposit teller, depicting ‘payment’ of the agreed sum into the dealer’s account.

It was, however, 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 eloped with the vehicle. A similar scenario also played out in a petition by one Mr. Amos Arole Oloja, also an Ibadan-based car dealer.

Oloja alleged that the duo drove to his car stand in an Honda CRV to price a Toyota Sienna car and agreed to pay N2,200,000 for the purchase of the vehicle. This time, Adeojo claimed to be Dr. Odumodu also of UCH, Ibadan, while Oni, his ‘driver’ gave his name as Kayode.

Oni is currently in the Agodi facility of the Nigeria Correctional Services following a court order when he was recently arraigned on one of the incidents. Adeojo will have his day in court soon. The Commission is holding them for conspiracy, issuance of dud cheque and stealing.