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Classics: Most wanted female fraudster is dead!

– Confusion over her last days in Police cell and hospital

– Long list of victims and the millions they lost 

LAGOS’ most popular female fraudster, Ms Pero Sosan, is dead. She reportedly died in the early hours of Tuesday, June 2, 2009, at Lagos General Hospital, Broad Street, where she was recuperating from a suicide attempt. Nobody knew the cause of her sudden death, but there was suspicion that her death was not natural.

This is because those who saw her carcass that morning said her stomach was swollen.

Her remains according to our source, have since been deposited at Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH) morgue.

However, getting to confirm Ms. Sosan’s death from both the hospital management and the police was a Herculean task.

On Wednesday, June 3, 2009, when we visited the hospital we met a brickwall.  Although we did not meet the chief medical director, one Dr. Balogun, we were directed to meet Dr. (Mrs.) Durojaiye, the Head of the Emergency Unit. The woman declined to make any comment. She told us that only the Commissioner for Health, Dr. Jide Idris could talk on such issue. She, therefore, directed us to his office at Alausa, Ikeja, Lagos. The following day, Thursday, June 3, 2009, we were at Ministry of Health, Alausa secretariat to see the Commissioner, only to be told that he had travelled outside the country.

We, however, met the Special Adviser to Governor Babatunde Fashola (SAN) on health, Mr. Toyin Amzat who told us he had not been briefed by the chief medical director of the hospital, and therefore could not make any comment.

The following day, we sent a text to the Special Adviser. This is the content of our text message: “Hon. Comm. Sir, we are investigating a story about a lady, Ms. Pero Sosan, who was taken to Gen Hos, Lagos by police from Milverton, Ikoyi, after an attempt to kill herself in custody.  Now, we learnt she is dead but those at the Gen Hos are saying that it is only the Comm. or SA that can talk to the press.  That is why we’ve been calling u. Tolani Abatti Encomium magazine.”

The message was sent at 10:04:15 on 05-06-2009.

The same message was also sent to the Commissioner for Health, Dr. Jide Idris.

Dr. Jide Idris responded with this message: “I am out of the country right now.  Pls see the Perm Sec or the SA.”  His response was sent at exactly 20:59:59 on 05-06-2009.  This was after we had sent another message to the Special Adviser which read thus: “SA Sir all we want to confirm is whether Ms. Pero Sosan was actually admitted at Gen Hos, Lagos and that she is truly dead, Tolani Abatti.”

This one was sent at 14:27:00 on 05-06-2009.

We placed a call to him (SA) again after several attempts, he responded by saying he was outside the state but the Chief Medical Director (CMD) has not briefed him yet.

We had to contact another top government official who later promised to help.  He later called us back to confirm that the lady fraudster had actually died but he did not want us to use his name as our source.

Aside the top government official, another person who confirmed the death of Ms. Sosan to us was her aunt, Ms. Toun Oni.  The popular actress after denying the death rumour first on Tuesday, June 2, 2009, later confirmed it on Thursday, June 4, 2009.

She said Pero’s cousins, one of whom is a lawyer and has been working assiduously for her bail informed her.  She further said Pero’s children later called her to inform her of their mother’s death.

But the police officers at the Special Fraud Unit, Milverton Road, Ikoyi were not that forthcoming.  After our two visits to their station, they told us through the Police Public Relation Officer (PPRO Milverton), a chief superintendent officer (CSO) that since we had earlier published that she was arrested by them and was taken to hospital after a suicide attempt, without getting in touch with them, we should not bother them about whether she was dead or not.  Rather, we should go to the hospital to ask such question.

Did Pero actually kill herself or was she killed by some powerful people who knew she could implicate them in court when her prosecution starts? Or did she die naturally?

These are the questions that has been agitating the minds of a lot of people who knew her when she was alive.  They believed that Pero loves life so much that she would not want to die.

They even added that said her suicide attempt in the police cell was just to make sure she did not stay too long in police cell before she is granted bail.

That it was she herself that alerted the police when she was losing blood after cutting herself on the two wrists.  That if she wanted to die why alerting the police?  As a matter of fact, she had already recovered from that incident, but stayed glued to her hospital bed feigning some strange illness. In fact, she was about to be discharged that Tuesday that she was found dead on her hospital bed.  She was to be taken to court straight after her discharge from hospital.

From the look of things, the last have not been heard on Pero’s sudden death.

You would remember we told you in our last two editions how Pero duped many people of millions of naira.  Her latest victim was one Mrs. Sola Agoro whom she duped of N8 million under the guise of helping her to secure business contracts from Lagos State and Ogun State governments.  She later gave Mrs. Agoro a cheque of N31 million being the proceeds from the sale of the four contracts, but the cheque did not only bounce, the woman was told that her Intercontinental Bank account had been closed for long.

There was one Mr. Segun Oginni, a petroleum dealer that she duped of N1.3 million to help him secure a N20 million loan facility from Intercontinental Bank Plc, claiming that Dr. Erastus Akingbola was her lover.

Her style was to get very intimate with her victims and convince them about how highly connected she was.  Prominent Nigerians like former President Olusegun Obasanjo, Dr. Mike Adenuga, Dr. Erastus Akingbola, Governor Gbenga Daniel, Gov. Olagunsoye Oyinlola, former Governor Rashidi Ladoja, were regular names she dropped for people as her friends and lovers.

She equally used these names to dupe many people.  People like late Oba Funsho Adeolu had fallen victim of Pero’s fraudulent ways.  Late Sani Abacha, Nigeria’s former Head of State, was another victim of Ms. Pero Sosan. Among many others.

 

THIS STORY WAS FIRST POSTED IN ENCOMIUM WEEKLY ON TUESDAY, JUNE 9, 2009

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