Three arrested for alleged visa scam

Police detectives attached to the Special Fraud Unit, SFU,have arrested three suspected fraudsters for forging international health insurance certificates to obtain visas at the Italian embassy in Nigeria.

It was gathered from the Police Public Relations Officer, PPRO SFU DSP Ngozi Isintume-Agu that the SFU Police Commissioner, CP Tunde Ogunsakin recently received a petition from the Deputy Consular-General/Head of Visa Operations, Italian Embassy stating suspicion on the applications submitted by the suspects through their agencies.

Upon investigations, the suspects, Michael Adeoye, Ody Chidebe and Moradeyo Olalekan, were discovered to be specialists in procuring fake health insurance certificate, visa and other vital travel documents for prospective travellers. It was further discovered that Michael Adeoye, of Otun-Ekiti, Ekiti State works at Nuyork Network Services at Mini Shop 2, TBS Lagos as a travel agent.

He is alleged to be the mastermind of the whole crime. He operates using Elvia Health Insurance Company based in Denmark and Asa Health Insurance Company based in Germany. He confessed that he found the health insurance companies online and has been defrauding the companies by booking health insurance certificates for travellers without paying money to the companies.

The cost for procuring the certificate is 17Euro and they charge 47Euro, which according to them is equivalent to N10, 000.00 and this has been going on since 2012. The second suspect, Ody Chidebe, a 31-year-old indigene of Nri, Anambra State and a graduate of Federal Polytechnic, Okoh who claimed to be an Insurance Agent corroborated the confession of the first suspect that the business has been on since 2012.

According to her, as an insurance agent, she can obtain an insurance certificate from any source and the Elvia Insurance Certificate was given to her by Michael Adeoye,as they have been using it to procure visa for travellers until their act was discovered.

The third suspect Moradeyo Olalekan, a 45-year-old indigene of Owu in Abeokuta, Ogun State, is a travel agent and owner of Nuyork Network Services where Michael Adeoye works. His office serves as venue for perpetrating the act.

He confirmed that Elvia Health Insurance is one of the travel insurance on the list of required and accepted health insurance on the website by the embassy and can be booked on line.