By Kayode Adeoti
A staff of the Kwara State Ministry of Finance, Olalekan Ayinla was on Thursday arrested for allegedly duping six persons in Ilorin to the tune of N12m.
The Level 10 officer reportedly swindled four persons including an army major, retired State Security Service officer, an Ilorin car dealer and real estate agent, Adekunle Williams and one Olatunji Mutalib..
The victims have since Thursday filed direct complaints before a magistrate court and the Department of State Security Service where he is being kept for discreet investigation.
One of the victims, William recounted how he was allegedly defrauded by the suspect, to our reporter at the court premises.
According to him “Ayinla who I fondly call Engineer introduced one Salaudeen Isah as his boss to me, claiming he was an architect
William, who is also a real estate agent disclosed that he had been having deals with the suspect since 2014 when he secured an apartment for him and helped him to buy a Lexus Jeep.
He said: “In 2015, he called me to help sell nine plots of land at Oke-Odo, Tanke area, which according to him belonged to himself and two other members of his family. I told him that the three of them should do Memorandum of Understanding. He asked me to do it with my lawyer that he would sign. I followed the instructions and sold the plots of land.
“But I was surprised when people who bought the plots of land started calling me in June this year that some people are claiming ownership of it. They said the land belonged to Adisa family.
“I called Engineer over the development and he instructed me to call his colleague whom he fondly call ‘Aje’. I did and he said I shouldn’t mind them that they are impostors. He claimed that the land belonged to his father,” he narrated.
William said since then, he had not been able to reach Ayinla as he avoided him while the buyers of the property kept demanding that their money be remitted.
Also, Olatunji Mutalib, who allegedly bought land from William explained in the complaint charge sheet that Ayinla of Ojomu close, Basin area sold a plot of land situated at Oko-Oba area, Tanke at the sum of one million five hundred thousand naira to him.
“Sometimes in December 2016, I transferred N1.5m to one Adekunle Williams’ GT bank account, an agent to the suspect. But on 27th May, 2017, one pastor Akanho called and said the land belongs to him, I asked him to present his documents and I discovered it was valid.
“What pained me most was that he took me to another plot of land which equally belongs to another person and since then, he had removed his SIM card and he is nowhere to be found. I reported him to the Civil Defence Corps but to no avail.”
Meanwhile, a source from the Legal Department of the State Security Service informed this medium last night that the suspect is in their custody, adding that he is likely to be charged to court on Monday (today).
He added that based on complaints lodged so far, Ayinla has duped no fewer than six people in the state to the tune of N12m.
