Nigerian Man Who Attempted to Defraud a Nairobi Company of Sh35.9 Million Arrested at JKIA

Police are holding a Nigerian national who attempted to defraud a Nairobi-based nut processing company of Sh35.9 million.

Endurance Obayan was arrested on Thursday at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) trying to flee the country after the Wednesday evening incident.

"He was stopped on his tracks as he desperately attempted to board a Nigeria-bound flight, to escape from our agents who were hot on his trail,” the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) said.

The cybercrime suspect is said to have accessed Equatorial Nuts Processing Limited systems and attempted to swindle their Australian client.

“He sent a fake invoice to their client in Australia, demanding payment of Sh35.9 million. The email further instructed the client to channel the money to an account in China. This alarmed the client who immediately contacted Equatorial Nuts, in a bid to establish whether they had changed their bank details,” DCI noted.

The company’s security manager immediately alerted Cybercrime detectives, who launched a manhunt for Obayan.

On Thursday evening, the suspect sensed danger and hurriedly left his Ruaka apartment only to be cornered by immigration officials at the airport.

He was arraigned at Milimani law courts on Friday, where he was charged with the offenses of computer forgery contrary to section 25(1) of the computer misuse and attempted stealing contrary to section 268(1) as read with section 391 of the penal code.