Man arrested for using disabled persons to defraud people

The police have arrested a suspect, Edwin Rex Odinaka, who specialised in defrauding people using phony programmes for persons living with disability.

The 42- year- old suspect was nabbed by personnel of the Inspector General of Police Intelligence Response Team (IRT)

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The suspect, who took to the crime in 2004 had allegedly threatened to kill two women, Carol Shade and Rosemary Akpo, both Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer(CEO) of EXP Nig Ltd after he failed to scam them of a sum of N8.5 million.

Disturbed, Ms Akpo reported Odinaka to IRT via a petition leading to the arrest of the suspect.

Odinaka’a arrest was carried out by IRT’s team led by the squad’s south west coordinator, Philip Rieninwa, a Chief Superintendent of Police (CSP).

Confessing, Odinaka said : “I am from Lokpanta village, Umunochi Local Government Area in Abia state. I am married with five children. I did my post graduate diploma in Business Administration in 2005 in Usman Dan Fodio University, Sokoto State, and the national youth service same year in Sokoto State.

‘’In 2006, I worked with DAX Technology in Lagos as an accounting officer on a salary of N42, 000. When the company folded up I joined Addis Nigeria in Ikeja, Lagos on N80, 000 salary but when the company restructured I joined Footprint Nigeria Ltd on N150,000 salary.

‘’When the company started restructuring I formed my own company named Theatre of Love Ltd, a Non- Governmental Organization (NGO) in 2010.Though the company has not been registered, its main objective is to empower people with disabilities by sourcing fund with which I can use to buy wheelchairs, crutches and sewing machines for disabled persons. To facilitate the sourcing of fund l used a presidential letterhead and it was not done for fraud. I cannot say it is a failure because when I unveiled the disabled persons programme in September 2018, it was a success.

‘’When I discovered fraud in the company in 2019, I reported to the management and as a whistle blower I expected the company to pay me a sum of N8.450 million as compensation.
‘’I only wanted together money to offset my hospital bill and some of my assets I sold off when I had challenges. Please tell the MD and CEO to forgive me.’’