The Lagos office of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has handed over four vehicles and a landed property to Bamidele Safiriyu Olusegun, one of the many victims of Bolarinwa Abiodun, the fake army general who was arrested in January for fraud.
In 2021, Bolarinwa had posed as a general of the Nigerian Army, forging the signatures of Olusegun Obasanjo, a former president, and Muhammadu Buhari, the incumbent president, to defraud Olusegun and other unsuspecting victims of hundreds of millions of naira.
In Olusegun’s case, Bolarinwa, whose real name is Hassan Ayinde, defrauded him of N266,500,000.
While handing over the vehicles and landed property to the victim on Thursday, the commission admitted that the assets form just a part of the restitution he was entitled to claiming from the fraud.
READ ALSO: Court Remands Fake Army General Bolarinwa in Prison
“The Lagos Zonal Command of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, has handed over a property located at 1A, Joke Ayo Street, Riverside Estate, Alagbado, Lagos as well as a Range Rover Sport Utility Vehicle, SUV, a black BMW car, a black Toyota Land cruiser car and a white Toyota Hilux recovered from a convicted fake Army General, Bolarinwa Abiodun, to one Bamidele Safiriyu Olusegun,” the EFCC statement reads in part.
“Abiodun had posed as an Army General to defraud Olusegun of the sum of N266,500,000 (Two Hundred and Sixty-Six Million, Five Hundred Thousand Naira.
“Upon his conviction on July 8, 2022, the trial judge, Justice Oluwatoyin Taiwo of the Special Offences court sitting in Ikeja, Lagos, had sentenced Abiodun to seven years imprisonment and also ordered him to forfeit all the proceeds of the crime.”
Despite the court judgement, the commission has been unable to recover the entire funds Bolarinwa stole from Olusegun, who has since started serving his jail sentence.
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