A 400 level student of the University of Calabar
(UNICAL), Emmanuel Dominic, has been arrested by the police in Calabar Cross River State for allegedly N300, 000 from a fruit seller.
According to the fruit seller who prefers anonymity, the suspect identified as Emmanuel Dominic has
been coming around her business place.
“He patronizes me frequently, he
usually relaxes with us. It all started with his frequent patronage and
friendliness, sometimes he will be in possession of my phone in the
name of collecting music at times movies, at times I do ask him to help
charge my phone for me in that barbing salon (pointing at the barbers
shop adjacent to her fruit stand) where we all do” she said.
“I saved that money for my school issues because I have finished
since two years ago, I did my project and all that is left to do my
clearance which includes my outstanding fees and is the major reason I
am doing this business and saving that money in my UBA account. Recently
my partner went to the bank to use the ATM to withdraw some money to
solve an urgent issue and upon reaching there the machine kept telling
him insufficient funds”.
Continuing her account, she said:
“We went to the bank (UBA Calabar
road branch, the one opposite Port Harcourt Electricity Distribution
Company, PHEDC) for enquiry and discovered that severally recharge cards
ranging from 5000 plus and at times transfer have been done from my
account to another using my phone. They advised us to keep cool not to
scare the person and think carefully. When the records were shown to me
and I thought over it and then discovered that Dominic is the one behind
it, some days he usually pass and would pretend not to notice us one
day I ran after him and held his shirt asking him why he did what he did
to me, he denied but because of the drama people came and at the end to
prove his innocence he went to the bank with us and eventually it was
his number that appeared in the many recharge card purchase and his
friend’s account number that he does transfer my money to. At the end he
opened up and told us that he used the money to solve some problems”
CrossRiverWatch findings reveal that the several transactions Dominic allegedly did from the fruit sellers account were within the period of 16th May, 2017 and 15th June, 2017.
“While still at the bank, upon Dominic’s confession, his mother
fainted. She later returned a hundred thousand Naira and wrote
undertaken to
pay back the remaining sum in three installments beginning from 19th June, 2017. The account Dominic usually transfer the money to belongs to one of
his course mate, Otu whom our sources disclosed that the suspect, who
is the only son of his mother, usually tells that his uncle is sending
money through his account and when it drops, Otu does the withdrawal and
hands over but when Dominic was caught, he sent Otu a text saying he
shouldn’t go to his bank that all the money he’s been withdrawing for
him is stolen.”