Nigerian comedian and content creator Obotuke Timothy, better known as Sirbalo, has reportedly fallen victim to a N60 million land purchase scam in Abuja.
This was made known by controversial social media critic, VeryDarkMan, who took to Instagram to share his efforts in helping Sirbalo recover his money.
According to VDM, Sirbalo intended to buy land in Abuja, paying N60 million for it, only to later discover it was a scam.
“So, I dey police station this night. Not for myself but because of Sir Balo, the comedian. Sir Balo and his friends bought land from a guy. They saw the land online, went to go and check it, did surveying, and checked everything on the land. They now charged them N60 million for the land. They went to the guy’s house and they paid for the land. The guy gave them the documents,” he said.
“A few months later, they went to the land to see if they could start development and discovered another person owned the land. They said ‘let us go back to the person that sold the land to us’. They went to the person’s house and discovered he was no longer there. They discovered the person rented the apartment when he knew Sir Balo wanted to come and pay for the land. Finally, they arrested the person after they searched for him.”
Confirming the arrests to TheCable Lifestyle, Josephine Adeh, the police spokesperson in Abuja, said the suspects were apprehended following a petition filed by VeryDarkMan.
“We arrested the suspects. The Sirbalo came through one VDM. He wrote a petition to the CP. The suspects used to pose with these apartments as their own houses. They locate somebody’s land and sell it and they would defraud you of your money and then disappear. So, in Sirbalo’s case too it is the same,” she said.
Adeh added that the investigation is ongoing to determine if the suspects are part of a larger group and how long they have been operating.
“We were able to get all the suspects. All of them are in our custody. The investigation will prove whether they are a syndicate and whether other people are involved. Because these particular ones that defrauded Sirbalo have been arrested.”
