The 28-year-old son of the police inspector, Damilola Areje, has allegedly fled in a 2019 Mercedes Benz GLE 43 worth N52 million and $700 worth of bitcoin belonging to a 32-year-old businesswoman, Nneka Chiemelu, dealing with real estate and construction.
The businesswoman said Damilola, an acquaintance, allegedly stole her car from her apartment in Lekki Phase 1 and ran away with $700 worth of bitcoin obtained by one of her on Friday, July 22, 2022 at 4:05 p.m customers had been deposited into his wallet.
It was discovered that all four of Damilola’s phone lines had been shut down and his active Instagram handle had been deleted since the theft.
Chiemelu told Punch about her ordeal, saying: “Damilola asked me to help him with the sum of N20,000 he needed to pay for flyers to promote his business and I promised to give him the N20,000 on the condition that after the work is completed he accepts a building supervision position at my place of work in order to help him and not just hand him the money.
“He was expected to pick up at 9am but picked up again at 2pm and asked me to help pay for his Uber ride, which I did through a bank transfer to the Uber driver’s account.
“An hour later he asked if I could allow him to charge his phone in my car so I gave him my car keys for him to continue and he got in the car and pretended to charge his phone.
“A few minutes later a guest came into the service apartment that I manage wanting to pay an outstanding fee and asked if I have a cryptocurrency account so he could pay that way and I told him I don’t have one.
So I asked Daniel if he had the means to receive payments through bitcoin and he said he does and accepted to receive the payment on my behalf.
So my client deposited $700 into his bitcoin wallet and acknowledged receipt right there in the presence of my client and me.
“A few minutes later he asked to leave, a request which I declined by telling him he could only leave after he transferred the $700 deposited into his bitcoin account to me, but he lied that his service provider was poor, so it was him waiting for the network.
While we were waiting in the net I went to get some food and he asked if he could come with me and I said yes, I then excused myself to meet up with some quickly to let them know I would be getting off for a few minutes, but by then I got out, Damilola had gotten into my car and instead of honking the security guard to open the gate for him, he demanded one of my staff to open the gate for him and he disappeared with my Mercedes Benz and my bitcoin worth $700.
“At first it didn’t occur to me that my car had just been stolen so I called him but his numbers were unavailable but his WhatsApp was still active showing he was online at the time.
I texted him to come back and that I was very hungry and needed something to eat but he ignored my chat until he went offline.
About 20 minutes later not hearing from him I decided to take an Uber to his apartment, when I got there I was informed by security that he had just packed up and left the premises.
I tried calling his numbers again but he had turned them off and also deleted his social media name.
“So I went to a nearby police station in Morocco, where his birth father, who is a police officer, works to report the matter this Friday.
I also made a post on my Instagram handle asking the public to help me report him if he is found anywhere for stealing my car.
I have received various comments on the post from him, his mother and some other users who have claimed that I am a liar and that the car is his, I have replied to almost all of the comments asking them to go to the police station and give their own testimony about who owns the car and I also told him that it is his, if it is true that the car is his has no reason to hide he should come out instead to give his statement to the police close.
“On July 27, I received a message from an international number on WhatsApp from an unidentified person who I suspect is Damilola, asking me to pay him N500,000 to help me with information on his whereabouts , but when I asked for his account number he sent a bitcoin wallet address instead.”
Speaking about how she got her car, Chiemelu said: “I bought my car from Unique Motors on July 7, 2021 with a deposit of N27 million via bank transfer and I am expected to pay the car dealer a balance of Pay 25 million N. and I have the receipt, although I still had to register the car.
“Meanwhile, I was later advised to request a transfer of the case to Lagos Police Headquarters to speed up the investigative process, and I have done so.
“The matter was referred on Monday 25th July and up until now, after a full week, I have heard nothing from the police regarding my car.
