Malaysian Boss Runs Ogun Fraud Ring Online, Suspects Say

Suspected members of a transnational fraud syndicate arrested by personnel of the Ogun State Police Command have claimed that their activities in Nigeria were coordinated by a Malaysian national who operated entirely online.

They claimed that all members of the network worked under the directive of the Malaysian national, whom none of them had met physically.

The spokesperson for the command, Oluseyi Babaseyi, had in a statement on Monday stated that the suspects, arrested in the Agbado area of Ifo Local Government Area of Ogun State, were allegedly involved in a networking scheme known as “Ignite,” through which foreign nationals were lured into the country with promises of wealth and business opportunities.

Babaseyi revealed that the group allegedly recruited victims from several African countries and persuaded them to pay for products that never arrived, while encouraging them to bring in more members into the network.

The command also accused members of the syndicate of orchestrating a fake kidnapping plot involving a Mauritanian national, Cheikh Mhedy, from whose family they allegedly sought to obtain 6.5 million CFA Franc.

In a confessional statement obtained on Friday by Saturday PUNCH, one of the leaders of the group, 34-year-old Zadariah Sawadogo from Burkina Faso, said he came to Nigeria in 2023 in search of better opportunities before he was introduced to the Ignite networking scheme by a friend identified as Sebasien.

Sawadogo said, “We took orders from Malaysia. Our boss is a Malaysian national, and I have never met him before. We only communicate on the internet. I was born in Burkina Faso, but I grew up in Ivory Coast. When I came to Nigeria, my friend Sebasien told me about Ignite Networking. He said I would make a lot of money from the business, but before I was arrested, I had only received $90,” he said.