Five persons have been arrested by the Special Fraud Unit, Ikoyi, Lagos, for their alleged participation in a visa scam.

The suspects, Micheal Raji, Johnson Adegoke, Oladimeji Popoola, John Osaghae and Smart Imafidon, were arrested by SFU operatives following petitions by the United States Consulate, Lagos, and the British Deputy High Commission.

Raji, a 32-year-old Higher National Diploma holder was said to have presented a Nigerian passport containing a forged UK visa during a US non-immigrant visa interview.

Raji allegedly confessed that the visa was given to him by Popoola who had directed that Adegoke should accompany him to the interview. Having made a part payment of N200,000 to Popoola for the visa, Raji was to pay the balance of N300,000 to Adegoke after his interview at the US embassy.

The SFU Commissioner of Police, Mr. Tunde Ogunsakin said, “Popoola, a forged document vendor, admitted that Raji had approached him for his assistance to procure a US visa. He confessed that he had contacted one Taiwo Akande at Oluwole, who had procured a UK visa and Holland visa for N150,000 each.

“The visas which took a week to procure were delivered to Popoola at Molete, Ibadan, Oyo State.”

Popoola however claimed ignorance about the authenticity of the visas to PUNCH Metro.

He said, “I was introduced to Akande by another friend Ayodeji; he is currently living in the UK. I didn’t know the visas were forged because Akande had assured me that he had people working in several embassies.”

Osaghae on the other hand, is said to have presented a forged income tax clearance from the Edo State Board of Internal Revenue Service during his visa application to the UK High Commission.

A 34-year-old graduate, Osaghae claimed that he had received a letter of invitation for a film festival award in the UK last year, but was denied visa by the high commission.

Having received another invitation letter this year, Osahgae said he gave Imafidon N180,000, to package documents for visa application. They had met in August 2013, when a mutual friend of Osahon introduced them.

Ogunsakin said, “Imafidon is a document vendor. He admitted that he packaged Osaghae’s document, but accused Osaghae of instigating him to forge a company income tax document as he was desperate to travel.

“The suspects will be arraigned in court soon to serve as a deterrent to other Nigerians intending to travel out of the country with forged documents.”

-Punch