Titus Maduako Eleweke
Anambra State businessman Mr. Eches Chinedu Henry has appealed to the Chairman of the Police Service Commission (PSC), Abuja, to intervene in an alleged attempt to undermine the judicial process.
The move, he claims, is part of a deliberate effort to free members of an international criminal syndicate that specializes in defrauding unsuspecting businessmen, using Nigerian banks as a platform for their activities.
In a petition filed by his counsel, Sir Ifeanyi Ejiofor of I.C. Ejiofor & Co., Mr. Henry urged the Chairman of the PSC to use his office to stop a covert operation by some rogue elements within the police force, aimed at illegally withdrawing a pending criminal charge before the Federal High Court, Awka.
The case, identified as Suit No. C/56/2024, involves a syndicate charged with multiple counts of fraud.
According to the charge sheet referenced by our reporter, the accused individuals—Onyia Ifeanyi Eucharist, Johnson Ogbonna, and others still at large, including one Innocent Kingsley Ogbonna—conspired to commit felony by obtaining money under false pretenses.
The charges include:
Between December 2021 and January 2022, at the Electrical Parts Market in Obosi, Idemili North LGA, Anambra State, the accused fraudulently obtained $57,000 from Mr. Eches Chinedu Henry
Between December 14 and 20, 2021, they again defrauded Mr. Eches Chinedu Henry, obtaining an additional $57,000.
In January 2022, they fraudulently obtained $65,000 from one Ejike Justice Chukwudi.
In January 2022, they also defrauded one Naji Okechukwu Matthew of $30,000 at the same location.
Mr. Eches Chinedu Henry has stated that Onyia Ifeanyi Eucharist, the alleged ringleader, is a former EcoBank staff who exploited his position to defraud him of millions of Naira.
According to him, he was led to believe that the bank would facilitate his international transactions by providing him with the necessary foreign exchange to make payments for goods and services imported from China. However, Mr. Eches Chinedu Henry alleges that the trio of Onyia Ifeanyi Eucharist, Johnson Ogbonna, and Kaycee Ogbonna conspired to embezzle his hard-earned resources.
He stated that it took the swift intervention of a crack team of police officers from the Anambra State Police Command Headquarters to uncover and apprehend the syndicate members. However, Mr. Eches Chinedu Henry claims that as the case progressed smoothly in the Federal High Court, Awka, the culprits, boasting of their powerful connections in Abuja, threatened to use their influence to sabotage the case and they have succeeded in having a strange signal issued by the police high command in Abuja, aimed at terminating the charges against them and withdrawing the case pending before a court of competent jurisdiction—the Federal High Court, Awka.
The petition, which awaits action from the Chairman of the Police Service Commission, was filed on behalf of Mr. Eches Chinedu Henry by I.C. Ejiofor & Co., his legal counsel.
