Lagos socialite nabbed over 419, sale of 'fake' vehicles
By Femi Ogbonnikan, Andrew Utulu

Perhaps, it was greed that led her into fraudulent acts and she may currently be paying for it. Mary Allen Fajuke, 50, (alias Alhaja) is being held by detectives attached to Monitoring Unit (MU) of the Lagos State Police Command, Adekunle Fajuyi Way, Ikeja, for allegedly defrauding several people of huge sums of money.





http://odili.net/news/source/2009/oct/6/414.html


Daily Independent learnt that Mary often feigned to be an automobile dealer but with no specific address of her showroom.

Lagos State police spokesman, Frank Mba, disclosed that antics of the suspected included "obtaining money under false pretext and luring victims to any shop, abandoning them and walking away, thus, creating problems for the shop owners who always bore the brunt. She used these shops for doing illegitimate businesses with would-be victims."

According to the Police spokesman, detectives were already investigating three separate cases involving the woman until nemesis caught up with her on Friday, September 25, 2009, opposite Juli Pharmacy, Ikeja.

Mba said, she obtained a sum of $7, 200 from a Bureau De Change operator and N300, 000, from a mobile handsets dealer at the Computer Village, Ikeja, among others. Police described her as a big-time fraudster.

While parading Mary before newsmen in his office on Monday, Mba wondered why the woman said to be based in Belgium with eight kids and looked well-fed could resort to sharp practices, if not for what he described as 'greed'.

"I have scrutinised her travelling papers and I found out that they were all genuine. Perhaps, I could ascribe her criminal escapades to greed and maybe for ostentatious life because she lacks nothing by her appearance. And there is no sign she is deprived or she is in a state of financial deprivation," Mba said.

In an encounter with Daily Independent, Alhaja could not admit if her current travail was a fall-out of vengeance. According to her, she was once a victim of con men when she came back to Nigeria in December last year for burial of her father in Lagos. She claimed that she was duped by two supposed men of God of undisclosed large amount, a case she said, was reported at Sabo Divisional Police Station, Yaba, Lagos. She gave the identity of the two men by their sobriquet as 'Wonderful Twins'.

She however, claimed that her current travail was as a result of business transaction she had with one Ifeanyi Nwane who called her for a business involving N300, 000, she obliged to assist him in clearing a vehicle from the Apapa seaport. But Ifeanyi 50, a handset dealer, dismissed her claim, insisting that he knew the woman through his younger sister, Chichi, an attendant in his mobile handsets shop at Ikeja Computer Village. He added that the Alhaja was in dire need of cash to bail herself out of financial mess until she walked herself up to his attendant when he was away.

But contradicting herself Mary said: "I called Ifeanyi to do business with me because I was cash-strapped. By that time, I had many vehicles I brought all the way from Belgium last December. I obtained his mobile number from his attendant in his shop. I told him I wanted to see him and we agreed to meet the following day. We met sometimes in August. When I met him, I told him that I had a car that I wanted to dispose of at a value of N1.4 million. We discussed and he agreed to go for the car at a sum of N300, 000 which he came to pay at my former shop, along Toyin Street, Ikeja, on the following day," she said.

On how she came about with two United Bank of Africa (UBA) cheques drawn at the value of N10 million each and found on her, she claimed that it was her children who drew the cheques themselves without her consent when she was away.

Ifeanyi further claimed that he was not initially interested in the Ford Winstar car, which Alhaja introduced to him because it was not his choice of a car, but that he later yielded due to pressure from her.

He recalled: "Chichi, my attendant, also my younger sister, told me she had a friend, a woman that wanted to dispose of a car. She called the woman and the following day, the Alhaja drove the car to my shop at Ikeja Computer Village. She went on her knees pleading that she was cash-strapped and needed cash to bail herself out. I took pity on her and decided to change my mind in the choice of the Ford car because I never liked the product. Initially, she told me she wanted to sell the car for N500, 000 but I told her I could only pay N300, 000 but soon afterwards, she pleaded with me to increase the amount to N350, 000, I resisted. At the end of it all, we agreed on N300, 000. And before she left I gave her N30, 000 cash deposit. The second day was fixed for another appointment at a shop on Toyin Street, where she claimed to be her shop for the payment of the outstanding N270, 000. The following day, I gave her a call. She did not tell me she had gone to my shop and met Chichi, who had paid her with the balance of N270, 000 out of the amount she realised from the day's sales. By the time I got to her purported shop at Toyin Street, she was away. When I called her, she told me she had gone to effect a change of ownership on the papers. The third day when I neither saw her nor heard from her, I called to find out what was amiss but she told me she was on Third Mainland Bridge where she had gone to do a change of ownership. I became disturbed because she had not handed over the car to me after I had paid. The fourth day, I returned to her purported shop at Toyin Street. That was when the lid was blown open. The legitimate owner came out and identified herself. Without wasting time, she had invited the police to intervene. Sincerely, her action was brash but it eventually paid off when the police waded in. They took my statement and went after her after the police were convinced that I was a victim of circumstance."

Giving further details on how Alhaja was eventually nabbed, Ifeanyi said, a week after he was returning from Local Airport, Ikeja, he suddenly sighted the woman in a tainted-glass car. "The moment she sighted me she sped off and there was no way I could accost her. But as fate would have it, last Friday I was passing by Juli Pharmacy and suddenly sighted this Alhaja again. I accosted her and she threatened to crush me with her car. I put up a chase after her until we got to LASUTH, Ikeja, Flyover Bridge, where she wanted to bolt away, but for the prompt response of men of the Rapid Response Squad (RRS), who waded in and chased her to Post Office Area, along Airport Road. She was arrested and later taken to the Monitoring Unit (MU) of the Lagos State Police Command headquarters, Ikeja."

Another man who claimed to be Alhaja's victim, Jubril Hassan Babangida, a Bureau De Change operator claimed that he was duped $7, 200 in December 2008 by her. He said he had known the woman for over two years when she used to go to the Muritala Mohammed International Airport (MMIA), Ikeja, to change dollars into Nigerian naira.

"At times she would come over with $1, 000, $2, 000 and $3, 000 at the public Car Park of the International Airport. She was nice to us there, but we never knew she was a fraudster," he alleged.

He narrated his own ordeal, "On a particular day at about 4:30p.m Alhaja called me and said she needed $20, 000 that she wanted to travel out of the country. I told her that dollar then was scarce. But I promised I would scout for it before the close of the day. Fortunately, I was able to get $7, 200 and subsequently called to notify her. And she asked me to meet her in her office on time as she was preparing to travel. She asked me to board a bus to Ajao Estate and I alighted at opposite Zenith Bank Plc. I gave her a call and she promised to send someone to come and pick me to her shop. When I could not see his boy I called her again and she asked me to walk up to Skye Bank Plc, some meters away. It was while I was being queried where I was going by the security men attached to the bank that I saw a young man. He identified himself to be Alhaja's boy. I went with him to Ozde Shopping Plaza, Osolo Way, Ajao Estate, and climbed up to shop FF. I met Alhaja and a female attendant. I gave her the $2, 700 and she counted it. The total amount was N1.1 million in exchange for the $2, 700. She quickly asked me to follow his boy to her next shop and collect my money. I obliged. But I did not know the young man had a power bike. As I attempted to convince the young man to join me in a motorcycle that took me there, he had hopped on his bike and sped off. The young man had escaped before it dawned on me that something was wrong. Since I did not want to endanger my life, I then asked the rider to make a detour and return to the Shopping Plaza to meet the woman. Surprisingly, when I got there the Alhaja had also escaped and the shop owner later came and warned me to leave her, threatening to arrest me if I did not. She actually called in the police and I was arrested and taken to Ajao Estate Divisional Police Station where I made statement on how the woman conned me. From there, the matter was transferred to the Monitoring Unit (MU). It was last Friday while in my office that I received a call from the MU that she had been arrested. They asked me to go and identify her and she was the same Alhaja when I got there."