‘Prophet’ held for dollar ‘theft’

A money changer Moses Edwin, has been arrested by Rapid Response Squad (RRS) operatives for allegedly stealing $500 from a customer.

Edwin, according to a statement by RRS, stole the money from $5000 given to him by lookmen Adebayo to change to naira.

Edwin, 50, a self-styled prophet, was arrested beside Airport Hotel, Ikeja with an associate three days after the incident.

Adebayo, a Corps member serving in Lagos, went to change the money for his mother.

He and Edwin settled for an exchange rate of N387 to a dollar.

But while Edwin and Daniel Ebhohimen were counting the money, they allegedly removed $500 from it and told Adebayo that it was incomplete.

RRS quoted Adebayo as saying: “I was trying to help my mum change the $5,000. I got to Airport Hotel and I met these men. After negotiating back and forth, they offered me N387 to a dollar. They took my details on the ground that the transaction was going to be online. Edwin requested that I surrender the $5,000 bills for them to confirm. Reluctantly, I gave them but I was monitoring them and I was counting along with them in my car.

“They were mid-way into the counting when another member of the gang distracted me from the driver’s side of my car. Thereafter, they handed back the money to me that it was complete and we headed to one of the banks in Opebi. We entered the bank. All along they prevented me from counting the money. At the bank, they told me the rate they gave me was no longer possible and that they were backing out but I offered for a renegotiation. I told them to excuse me and I went into the gents to confirm the money. I counted it and $500 was missing. Before I could come out they had run away. The door attendants told me he saw them rushing out of the bank.

“I went to where I met them but I couldn’t see them. It was on the third day that I saw Edwin and I invited the police.”

Edwin was said to have confessed to the crime. According to RRS, he said he never followed the gang to bank, adding that he only ordered his other gang members to finish up the transaction.

He said he was given N10,000 when they returned from the bank.

Edwin, the RRS said, has agreed to pay back the ‘missing $500.’

The suspects have been transferred to the State Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Department (SCIID) at Panti, Yaba, Lagos Mainland.