Fraud Victim Defends Interpol Of ‘N82m Theft’ Allegation

A fraud victim, Ogbu Chidera John, has countered a false claim made by one Garry Utubor Irabor, who accused Interpol operatives of stealing his N82 million.

The fraud victim, described Garry Utubor Irabor’s claims, as baseless, frivolous, blackmail, deceit, blatant lies and an attempt to cover up his alleged fraud crimes which he is being investigated for by the Interpol.

It would be recalled that Garry Utubor Irabor, had in some onlines (not this medium) and Igberetv.com, accused Interpol operatives of stealing his N82 million kept with Zenith Bank Plc.

Specifically, Garry Utubor Irabor had lamented how his life is being ruined, following his alleged stolen from his bank, which he said ‘not by cyber criminals, but the Nigerian International Police called INTERPOL.

In the publication, Irabor equally called on the management for Zenith Bank Plc to step out and explain to Nigerians and their numerous customers what type of documents or authority that was served to them that empowered them to betray their customer’s trust and transfer money in his account, without his consent, into another account. Failure to do any of these means they have to payback his money into account with damages.

But in defence of the allegations, Mr. Ogbu Chidera John, a complainant of fraud, which led to the action of the Interpol against Garry Utubor Irabor, described is outcry as an attempt to tarnish Interpol operatives.

Refuting Garry’s claims, Ogbu in a counter petition by his lawyer , Akinlolu Oyebamiji of OC Solicitors & Attorney, captioned “rejoinder on alleged fraud on Garry Utubor Irabor by the police: a case of bold fraudster seeking justice when caught in the act”.

Parts of Ogbu’s rebuttal to Garry’s claims read: “it is the brief of our client that between the month of September and December 2023, he was introduced to one Garry Utubor Irabor who claimed he was a licensed Bureau De Change who could provide needed Naira denomination for pound sterling. Arrangement was thereafter made since our Client needed United Kingdom pound sterling for a business Utubor Irabor (receipt of which was acknowledged).

“To the surprise of our client, one Mrs. Alison Baskelt made a fraudulent transfer of 50 thousand pounds to our client’s account which led to his account getting frozen by the United Kingdom authorities. Our Client thereafter filed a petition against Garry Utubor Irabor with Interpol of the Nigeria Police to retrieve his money and the suspect was traced to Benin City, Edo State, Nigeria with the money still intact in his account. While investigation was ongoing, Garry Utubor Irabor was found to have colluded with some other persons suspected to be bank official to deplete N17 million out of the N100 million in his account.

“Already, investigation has revealed that Garry Utubor Irabor operates through a proxy Garry Utubor Irabor and some other persons. As at date, the police is requesting that the balance of N82 million in Garry Utubor Irabor’s account be provided to serve as exhibit for investigation to continue.

“The police recovered the money as an exhibit and also to state that he was officially invited to the police to enable him state his own side of the story, but he refused to honor the invitation, instead went to social media.

“Suffice to say, it is sheer blackmail, deceit and blatant lies that the police has withdrawn any money from Garry Utubor Irabor’s account.

“From the foregoing, our client is urging the Nigeria Police as well as the general public to prevail on Garry Utubor Irabor to refund our client’s money paid to him as he is in a serious financial mess as the Interpol Section of the Nigeria Police has no hand in the case as they (i.e. Interpol) are only in the matter based on the petition submitted to their office for investigation as the case is a clear fraud and obtaining by false pretense which falls within the purview of the Nigeria Police.”