A lawyer, Peniela Akintujoye, has reiterated that he was one of the victims defrauded by a Canada-based Nigerian, Kayode Oyedare, who allegedly collected millions of naira from Nigerians seeking a certificate of sponsorship to work in care homes in the United Kingdom, without getting them the document.
This, he said, was at variance with the sentiments expressed by some persons that he colluded with Oyedare to defraud the victims, following a media report.
Punch had on March 3, 2024, reported that Oyedare was contracted by his alleged victims to procure the document.
An accountant trainee based in the UK, Anjola (surname withheld), had told our correspondent that she paid Oyedare the sum of £12,000 for training as well as a CoS for her boyfriend, who was in Turkey.
She also alleged that upon the completion of the training, Oyedare gave her boyfriend a fake CoS, which he submitted at the UK Embassy in Turkey in the course of seeking a visa, and was subsequently banned from entering the country for 10 years.
However, in a statement sent to City Round, Akintujoye said, “I cooperated with the writer of the story, and I was even the one who gave him the phone numbers of many of the people that were defrauded because I was the one that referred a lot of them to Oyedare.
“I also wrote petitions to law enforcement agencies, including the police, and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission at my cost.
“I did not interfere with anything my clients had to say to him, because my conscience is clear. However, it was when I saw the publication that I realised that the attachment of my picture and that of Oyedare would be extremely injurious to me.”
Shedding more light on his relationship with Oyedare, the legal practitioner said, “My company has been involved in general travel consultancy, including for studying and working abroad, sometimes. And, we have had many successes in that area, long before I met Oyedare.”
He added that nine out of the 10 victims who sent money paid directly to Oyedare’s account (or those of his representatives).
He also noted that his company’s practice was for the work to be delivered first before it collected its agency fee.
“Only a single payment was paid to our company account in naira, and it was promptly fully forwarded to someone who changed it to pounds and sent the pounds equivalent to Kayode, who was still in the United Kingdom at the time. Both receipts of the transfers were presented to the particular applicant, who knows the truth but nevertheless alleged we were accomplices in the PUNCH report.
However, I harbour no ill feelings towards him, because he has gone through so much pain on account of this, so his anger is understandable,” he said.
Punch