By Baron Ike
Operatives of the Inspector General of Police Intelligence Response Team (IRT) are digging deeper at unusual quarters to unearth the hidden corners where the smart kidnapper cum armed robber stashed the millions of naira he collected as ransom from his victims.
At the last count, spotlight on four major commercial banks in the country believed to be haven for such illicit funds are on the watch list of the detectives who are now putting heads together to know how the 36 year old father of five opened his accounts with the banks.
They are interested in knowing if the banks’ management and personnel did what was expected of credible financial institutions while opening account(s) for customers, particularly for a criminal like Chukwudimeme Onuamadike popularly called Evans, who did with different identities, including in the same bank.
GTbank, FirstBank, Fidelity Bank and Diamond Bank are for now some of the finance houses the detectives believe warehoused Evans money. They are already in talks with the management of the banks.
We got it on good authority during the week that some staff of GTbank ran into trouble over the accounts opening of the notorious kidnapper and got suspended.
Evans who was recently arrested by the police has been helping them in their investigation on his illicit wealth stashed around the country and in Ghana. He has also named the banks he does business with.
Armadanews.com learnt that the management of the commercial banks have turned the heat on their personnel, as detectives step up their investigation into potential alleged manipulation of documents in the process that led to Evans opening accounts with the banks.
Sources close to the police said GTbank for instance decided to suspend some of its personnel involved in the account opening ahead of an investigation into how they refused to comply with bank’s laid down rules and internal control measures that may have put the bank on the defensive with detectives.
A source said to be sure the GTbank was not helping Evans hide stolen funds or money collected as ransom from kidnapped persons, the account officer(s) are expected to help police detectives in some areas during their findings, a reason their management has taken the suspension measure.
Armadanews.com gathered that the bank itself has been conducting internal review into allegations that its account officials allegedly connived to manipulate the accounts opening of Evans.
Since Sunday, June 18 when Evans gave details of the banks with which he does business with, citing Fidelity , Diamond and First banks, in addition to GTbank, detectives got the nod of the Inspector General of Police, Ibrahim Idris to go the whole hog in unraveling the places where the kidnapper kept his millions.
Before the names of three other banks popped up, Evans was telling the police he had only one account- GTbank. But they did not believe him based on his inconsistency in tales over his wealth and where they are kept.
During the week, the new banks Evans claims he does business with were busy joggling documents to know where anything incriminating may have taken place during the account opening with the criminal.
“If everything goes well with our investigation, the banks that kept his money with them may be charged with him for conspiracy because the rules on opening of accounts with the banks to determine who is genuine and who is not are there. Besides, how does one explain the huge lodgments from the man which the banks probably did not think it was necessary to cross check the sources,” one of the detectives explained.
Although the accounts belonging to Evans have been frozen based on the directives from the IG, detectives are marching them with some that were opened with company names which were still being operated by Evans.
A smart Evans used different names in each state of the federation to create varied identities, including in dealing with the banks.
For instance, in 2013, Evans was issued with a Ghanaian passport with a fictitious name, Asare Nelson.
Idris disclosed that at the West Africa International Security Conference in Accra, Ghana, in a paper entitled: “The role of Nigeria Police in national security and its contributions in West Africa.” The Accra Passport office issued the passport to Evans.
Idris said Officials of the Accra Passport Office allegedly connived with Evans to issue the passport on January 10, 2013 which will expire in January 2018.
It was in Evans house at Magodo, Lagos that he police discovered his Ghanaian passport in his house.
In Magodo where Evans lives he is known as George but as Evans in the Lagos criminal environment.
“In Edo he is Sunny; Port Harcourt, he is Richard; Lagos he is Evans; Anambra he is Somtu, etc, while some of his girl friends the police arrested know him as Mike.
“Security agents in each state are looking for different persons whereas it is the same person. He was doing that just to outsmart security agents. He is extremely intelligent in crime matters,” a source said.