43-year-old Ehiarimian made love advances to Mary Ope, 40, promising to marry her.
Ope, who is currently married with children fell for the romance scam and was swinled of several millions of money and landed property.
This was disclosed by the assistant inspector-general of Police in charge of Zone 2, AIG Ahmed Iliyasu.
Ope owns a farm in Abuja and was working on setting other businesses. Ehiarimian was introduced to her as someone capable of providing her security to and from her farm.
Shortly after resuming work, the suspect professed love to her with promises of marrying her.
Ope claims she “hypnotically” fell in love with the suspect who dispossessed her of both moeny and property.
AIG Ahmed revealed that the suspect obtained the sum of $15,000 from her to procure a visa for Ope’s sister, another $10,000 to purchase carpets for an office they both agreed to operate and N40 million to establish a medical laboratory.
According to Ope, when she was back to her senses, she petitioned the Zone 2 Command, Onikan, Lagos, to arrest the suspect and recover her money and property.
Ehiarinmian was arrested and the following items, belonging to the victim, were recovered: two Toyota Sienna Space buses (05/07 models) marked RBC 564 BB and YAB 101AZ; two unregistered Toyota Sienna Space buses (05/07 models); Toyota Highlander (01 model), with Registration No. YAB 768 SD; bunch of keys of a storey building comprising two bedroom flats and two self contained apartments.
Also recovered were one bedroom flats with boy quarters in Apo Resettlement Abuja; documents in respect of a ‘900sqm land, located in Wasa District, Abuja along with Certificate of Occupancy (C of O); documents of a 900sqm land, situated in Angwan Tiv area of Apo Resettlement Area, Abuja; a 900kVA generating set and nine copies of Deeds of Assignments for a property in Apo, Abuja.
Yet to be recovered from him are a Mikano Generating set, two duplexes in South Africa, the sum of $15,000 (obtained for the victim’s sister’s visa), $10,000 (for purchase of office carpets) and N40 million he collected from her for the establishment of a medical laboratory.
When questioned, Ehiarinmian denied the allegation, saying: “I did not defraud her. She is my girlfriend. We had a misunderstanding and she boasted that she had powerful people who would deal with me. Let us go to court, that is what I want.”
