The Kaduna Zonal office of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC today July 26, 2021, arraigned the duo of Mary Aweh and Olaleye Samuel Oluwadamilare before Justice M.T. Tukur of Kaduna State High Court, Kaduna on a six-count charge bordering on advance fee fraud.
The defendants pleaded not guilty when the charges were read to them, prompting the prosecution counsel, Jamil Musa to ask the court to fix a date for commencement of the hearing. The defence counsel, A.L Damsaka however urged the court to grant his clients bail.
The judge granted bail to the defendants in the sum of N2 million each and a surety in like sum. The sureties must be of good character and possess evidence of tax payment for the past three years.
They were remanded at the Correctional Centre pending the perfection of their bail terms.
The defendants, as promoters of Victoria Travels Resorts Ltd, allegedly obtained the said sum from Tochukwu Casmir Asika and Daniel Monday Alabi under the pretext of helping them to procure Canadian visas and other arrangements.
In 2018, the complainants engaged the defendants to arrange a trip to the Turks and Caicos Islands. They paid him N1, 000,000 each. Two days to their departure, the suspect informed them that the trip had been put on hold.
She offered an alternative – a visa to Canada – which they accepted and paid N4, 240,000 each for a visa, consultancy and air tickets. After a long wait, Olaleye called and delivered the so-called Canadian visa and Yellow Fever cards. He also informed them that they would be travelling through Kenya.
But upon arrival in Nairobi, Asika and Alabi were arrested by Kenyan Immigration officials for possession of fake Yellow Fever cards and detained.
Upon release, the duo made effort to contact the suspect to get her Kenyan representative to assist with the connecting flight to Canada but her phone lines were off. The complainants were re-arrested by Kenyan Immigration and deported to Nigeria.
