LAMENTATIONS IN LAGOS :Diesel suppliers defrauded by British bizman agonize over their bankruptcy

A dark pall now hangs over more than 12 Nigerian businessmen as bankruptcy stares them in the face. The business­men got their fingers burnt from supplying diesel to a British citizen and chairman of QuestGold Resources Limited, Syed Mohammed Kamran, who allegedly defrauded them through an elaborate local purchase order (LPO) scam, in con­nivance with some of his senior Nigerian employees.

Kamran, who was alleged to be an ex-convict that relocated to Nigeria from Essex, Unit­ed Kingdom, was arrested by vigilant operatives of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad of the Lagos State Police Command, led by Supol Abba Kyari, at the Murtala Muhammed Internation­al Airport as he allegedly wanted to flee from the country.

A source at SARS told Sunday Sun that altogether the British con artist, who masquer­aded as a genuine businessman, serially defrauded his victims of a huge sum amounting to over N120 million through the issuance of local purchase orders (LPOs), which he paid for with dud cheques.

The source said: “The people affected are more than 12 and until we arrested him, several se­curity agencies were looking for him. He has duped these people of various sums of money: N22 million, N23 million, N13 mil­lion, N17million, N11 million, and lower amounts. When we calculated everything, it amount­ed to over N120 million.”

Somewhat shocked by the enormity of his loss and still struggling to make sense of the nightmarish transaction with Kamran, one of the victims, Maxwell Olaniyi, a native of Shaki West Local Government Area Oyo State, said: “I don’t understand how someone will come to my country, where I have my parents, to my soil gan gan and defraud me.”

Olaniyi first met Syed Kamran in June 2014 and struck a busi­ness deal with him. He deliv­ered five trucks of diesel worth N4.884 million each, to Kamran who paid him half of the money before delivery. When the last truck was delivered, Olaniyi said Kamran issued a cheque, which he rejected, preferring a direct cash transfer through the bank. When Kamran became dodgy, Olaniyi took the matter to the headquarters of the State Crim­inal Investigation Department, Panti, Lagos, where the police officers got the Briton to enter an undertaking to pay the money. He then issued a UBA cheque that Olaniyi rejected, fearing that it would bounce. But the police officers allayed his fears and he took the cheque. Two days later, he informed the police officers that the cheque bounced as he had suspected.

The experience of the chief executive of Bamenda Pe­troleum, Mr. Chuks Ubochi exposed the unsavoury role played by Nigerian accom­plices to facilitate Kamran’s alleged serial fraud. Ubochi told Sunday Sun that his old schoolmate, Gabriel Nsofor introduced him to Kamran, from whose company he (Nsofor) sourced an LPO for diesel and pressured Ubochi to fund the LPO. He revealed that he had strong reservations about the LPO and so declined to accept it. When Nsofor got a second LPO from Kamran’s company, Ubochi insisted that verifica­tion be done. To allay the fears of Ubochi, Nsofor arranged a series of meetings between him and Kamran’s company at The Sanzak Place, a hotel located at 159A Sinari Darinijo St, Vic­toria Island, Lagos, and at the home of the general manager of QuestGold Resources Limited, Mr. Jeffery E. Okanigbuan, who interestingly also owns the hotel where Kamran was alleged to have lodged and operated from at different times. Sensing the reluctance of Ubochi to do busi­ness with QuestGold Resources, Okanigbuan took to bombarding him with text messages in a bid convince him that the company was genuine.

When he eventually agreed, Ubochi’s Bamenda Petroleum supplied four trucks of AGO to Kamran’s company, which made part payment with two dud cheques.

Curiously, Kamran and his cohort continued to demand fresh supplies from Bamenda with promises to pay. As his suspicions about Kamran grew, he initiated a background check and discovered that he had duped several other people in a similar way by issuing fake LPOs for supply of diesel.

How nemesis caught up with Kamran

As Sunday Sun learnt, Kamran’s days became num­bered when Benedict petitioned SARS about the fraud committed against him by the Briton. Acting on the petition, the operatives went on his trail. But Kamran smartly hopped from hotel to hotel as the police closed in on him. Eventually, the police learnt that Kamran had perfected plans to flee from the country.

Recalling how the Briton was caught, the police source said: “When we got information that Kamran wanted to run out of Lagos, we laid ambush at the airport. At the domestic airport we found out that they brought him in a cab. Someone came down from the vehicle and looked around as if they knew that people were planted there. We asked the complainant to go to the vehicle and check if it was the same vehicle we suspected took Kamran from the hotel. The complainant went there and signaled that the man was in the vehicle. When Kamran and the people with him saw the com­plainant, they tried to zoom out of the airport. So SARS Team appeared and arrested him. In the course of our investigation we found out the people in the hotels where he stayed all helped him to evade the police. We got information that other Police unints like Ajah Police Division, Special Fraud Unit (SFU), SCID Panti, and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) were all after him.”

Victims up in arms against British High Commission

In the heat of the arrest of Kamran, who is currently in the custody of SARS, one of his victims revealed toSunday Sun that senior officials of the British High Commission have been making strenuous efforts and mounting pressure to secure the release of the alleged con artist from custody.

Holding back tears, Benedict who was defrauded to the tune of N4.455 million told Sunday Sun: “It is just unfortunate that we have gotten to this stage. The suspect, who we thought to be a responsible and genuine busi­nessman happens to be a British citizen and I understand that the UK High Commission has come to see if they can secure bail for this person that commit­ted a monumental fraud in this country. It baffles us as to why the High Commission wants to secure his bail, especially when this same man has jumped bail several times. He has two cases in Ajah, three at SFU and over eight cases in SARS. He also has cases at Maroko and Bar Beach police stations. There are pend­ing cases at Zone 2 headquarters. In all these stations, this man has jumped bail. So I see no reason why they are trying to secure his bail instead of thinking of how we will be paid our money. My transaction with him has been over four months and some people have cases close to a year. I strongly believe that this man has been shipping this money out of the country to London where he has his family and possibly America where we understand that some of his brothers reside. We find it difficult to understand why the British Government does not want to assist us to see if they can retrieve this money from their citizen and give back to the people he duped. We ex­pect the Federal Government to protect its citizens from dubious foreigners like Syed Mohamed Kamran, work with the British Government to retrieve this money from him and pay the people he has duped. This man had been doing this for well over two years and he has caused a lot of havoc to families particularly mine. The man has taken the business off my hands and I have nothing again. So I want the British Government to get our monies back to us. That is our major concern.”

Another victim, Henry Chin­edu who also lost N918,000 to Kamran lamented: “He put our families into suffering because we can no longer do business when this man has collected our trading capital. It took us time and money to get Kamran at the airport. Because of his greed, so many of us are suffering. Our families are suffering. Some of us don’t even have any mon­ey again to buy products and supply to genuine customers. We sourced for this product (diesel) from friends and supplied to Kamran who turned around to embezzle our money and sent it overseas through these bureau de change operators.”

Chinedu revealed that Kam­ran’s wife had indicated her willingness to send some money to Nigeria to settle the debts incurred by her husband. This, he said, contradicted the lie alleged­ly told by Kamran that he was separated from his wife and had no children or family members.

At the SARS headquarters where he is being held for inter­rogation, Sunday Sun sought to get Kamran’s response to the allegations against him. Though he ignored some of the questions put to him, he however admitted knowing the complainants in this report. At a point he angrily stated Sunday Sun was out to embarrass him and for that rea­son he would not speak. When asked why he lied about his family or the fraudulent activities he was involved in he said: “No comment.”

source;Sun