The Ebonyi State Police Command, on Wednesday, paraded two persons, Alegu Nwabueze and Moses Onyema, for allegedly defrauding one Emmanuel Nnaji from Enugu State to the tube of N54 million.

The state Police Public Relations Officer, PPRO, SP Onome Onovwakpoyeya, told journalists that Nwabueze, his wife Chinyere and Onyema, who is a former chairman of Ikwo Local Government Area of the state committed conspiracy/forgery and advance fee fraud by selling people’s land.

He said, “This is a case of conspiracy/forgery of title document and advance fee fraud, reported through a written petition against the suspects, one Alegu Chinyere, Alegu Nwabueze and Moses Onyema.

“Forged title document were recovered from them. And they defrauded Mr. Emmanuel Nnaji Ede of Enugu State to the tune of N54 million, while N21.39 million was recovered from Alegu Nwabueze’s bank account.”

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But reacting to the police statement, the suspects; Nwabueze and Onyema denied any involvement in land fraud.

They informed that they genuinely executed the land business with relevant documents and described the allegations against them as untrue.

They lamented their continued detention by the police over the matter, adding that they have been in detention for more than a week.

Nwabueze pointed out that the land they sold was given to his wife, Chinyere, by her elder sister, a former Commissioner for Budget, Research and Planning in the state, Chinwe Okah, who is now late, as a settlement for living with her for 16 years.

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“It is my wife that owns the land. Elder sister to my wife, late Engr. Uchechi Okah, gave the land to my wife and it is my wife that sold the land and put the money in my account. The land was given to my wife by the late Okah because she lived with her for 16 years and my wife is her younger sister.”

On his part, Onyema said his friend from Enugu called him that he needed a land in Abakaliki to establish a factory and he consulted two land agents who got the land for him.

He noted that after the agents got the land, he made independent investigation and discovered that the land was genuine and it was sold.

He disclosed that the papers of the land was handed to him in the presence of a lawyer, Barr Sunday Ununu, and he called one of his boys when he was council chairman and asked him about one Chinyere Alegu and that his boy told him that he knows the woman

He said, “I asked the boy if he was aware that Chinyere has a land along Nkwegu that she wants to sell and he said yes. I sent up to two persons separately to go and confirm from Chinyere if she has a land and it is for sell and they all said yes.

“I then went myself and showed her the papers that were given to me and she confirmed that the lands belongs to them and they said it is for sell. I told them that my friend from Enugu wants to buy the land and they said they are ready to sell it.”