The Inspector General of Police, Usman Alkali Baba, in a letter ordered the Delta State Commissioner of Police, Wale Abass to investigate the fraud allegations levied against a Delta State-based human rights activist, Harrison Gwamnishu.
Gwamnishu, whom the petitioners described as a “self-acclaimed human rights activist” and the Director General of BehindG Bars Human Rights Foundation, was accused of defrauding an Indonesia-based Nigerian businessman, Nnaji Franklin Ifeanyi, of N6 million in pretence to help him recover his land in Owerri, Imo State.
The Rule of Law and Accountability Advocacy Centre (RULAAC) and 17 other human rights groups across Nigeria petitioned the IGP to probe Gwamnishu over millions of Naira fraud allegations.
Tracy Mcwary, who identified herself as the Chief Executive Officer of Miss Amnesty Nigeria, speaking on behalf of Gwamnishu said that Gwamnishu had agreed to refund the money on June 30, 2023. However she insisted that Nnaji and the human rights groups withdraw the petition, if the fraud victim really wanted his money back unless his aim was to tarnish his (Gwamnishu’s) image.
The petitioners explained that on July 15, 2022, Nnaji contacted Gwamnishu on his Instagram page and requested assistance to recover some land he bought from someone in Owerri which the seller appeared to have resold to another buyer.
Gwamnishu promised Nnaji that he would help him recover the land and demanded the sum of N2 million for his “services”, which Nnaji accepted and on the instruction of Gwamnishu, Nnaji made an advance payment of N1.5 million and later paid the N500,000 which Gwamnishu said was for “police mobilisation.”
After some weeks, Gwamnishu told Nnaji that the petition to the police was ready and he then sent one Tony Ibobo to Owerri to follow up on the case but asked Nnaji not to reveal to Tony the amount he (Nnaji) paid him for the work.
After Tony’s efforts to recover the land from the seller failed, he advised Nnaji to rather go for the recovery of the money he paid for the land and eventually, Tony got the police in Owerri to arrest the land seller who agreed at the police station to refund all the money totaling N15million.
The land seller started refunding the money through the police and made an initial refund of N2 million and another N3 million, making a total of N5 million, but out of the N5 million, Tony transferred only N4.2 million to Nnaji and when he asked why, Tony explained that the police took 10% amounting to N500,000 while he himself took another N300,000 which made Nnaji to raise objections.
Meanwhile, he was still unable to reach Gwamnishu on the phone. He sent a text message to Gwamnishu informing him about the new development, and for the first time in over a month after he sent Tony to Owerri, Gwamnishu replied and asked Nnaji to return the money to the land seller saying they should pay all the N15 million at once.
He then asked Nnaji to send the N4.2 million already recovered to him to return to the seller and promised that he would file a court action against the land seller to recover the whole money at once.
Nnaji paid the N4.2 million into an Access bank account with the account name, Chidera Access Bank which Gwamnishu provided.
Gwamnishu went to Owerri with a lawyer and claimed to have filed a suit but no further progress was made and Nnaji asked him to return all the money he paid to him and allow the land seller to continue with the installmental refund of the money.
But Gwamnishu claimed that he had returned the money to the police through Tony to be returned to the land seller, but Nnaji said that “Tony was mad when I asked him such question. Tony didn’t even know I returned the money to Harrison”, adding that Tony had been calling Gwamnishu to ask him why he lied with his name but he had refused to answer his calls till date.
After several calls made to Gwamnishu were not answered, Nnaji sent him a message on his Facebook page demanding his money and he immediately blocked Nnaji on Facebook, and later sent a message to him on WhatsApp asking him to stop threatening him and that he needed to change strategy by withdrawing the case from court for Nnaji to get back his money but when Nnaji asked him if he deposited his money with the court, he gave no answer.
Nnaji then contacted the lawyer whom Gwamnishu said he engaged to file the case in Owerri, for the recovery of the land money in whole and instructed the lawyer to withdraw the case, but the lawyer expressed shock to hear that Gwamnishu asked Nnaji to send the recovered money to him for whatsoever reason.
The lawyer however withdrew the case from court, but Gwamnishu refused to return Nnaji’s money; instead he dared him to do whatever he wished to do.
Meanwhile, RULAAC said that the publication of Gwamnishu’s fraud against Nnaji opened a floodgate of other shocking revelations on social media from several other victims and witnesses of Gwamnishu’s alleged fraudulent activities.
“It’s been startling revelations of ugly experiences in the hands of this same dubious character Harrison who commits his fraudulent acts in the guise of rendering human rights assistance to his victims.”
RULAAC therefore called on anyone who has had any sad experience or who has been a victim of a Gwamnishu’s fraudulent schemes to send their story via rulaac@rulaac.org for onward transmission to the investigation team at the Delta State Police Headquarters.
