13th August, 2015
Cyriacus Izuekwe
The police in Lagos have arrested a fake female a legal practitioner who has allegedly been defrauding unsuspecting members of the public for the past 10 years in Lagos State, western Nigeria.
Mrs. Blessing Edmund was arrested after she collected N513,000 as legal fee from Onyinye Eze under false pretence of baling Onyinye’s brother who was detained in police custody in Ghana.
She was arrested and charged before Isolo Magistrates’ court where she is facing charges of impersonation, fraud and stealing under the Criminal Code of Lagos State.
Trouble started after Blessing met Onyinye and introduced herself as a well known legal practitioner both in Nigeria and Africa as whole.
During their discussion, Onyinye informed Blessing that her brother was arrested in Ghana for an undisclosed offence.
Onyinye told Blessing that she needed a lawyer who would go to Ghana to bail hom.
Blessing assured Onyinye that she would go and use her contacts as a well known lawyer in Ghana to bail the brother.
She requested for the money in question as her legal fee, which Onyinye paid.
Blessing pretended that she was travelling to Ghana to release Onyinye’s brother. But that was the last time Onyinye heard from her since 2014.
P.M.NEWS gathered that instead of Blessing going to Ghana as she promised, she relocated to another part of Lagos and changed all the communication links between her and Onyinye.
The matter was reported to the police who had been trailing Blessing until she was eventually arrested recently and taken to Ijeshatedo police division.
At the station, she allegedly confessed that she was not a lawyer as she did not read law or attend Law School to qualify as a lawyer.
Blessing also allegedly told the police that she exploited the lax system in the society to practice as a lawyer for over 10 years.
However, she was charged to court for the alleged offence where she pleaded not guilty.
The presiding Magistrate, Mrs A. O. Adedayo, granted her bail in the sum of N500,000 with two sureties in like sum.
She was remanded in prison custody pending when she will perfect her bail.
The matter was adjourned till 28 August, 2015.