Police arrests Nigerian soccer coach for alleged fraud in India

Police operatives from the Cybercrime unit in Hyderabad in India have arrested a Nigerian football coach in the country, Henry Chukwudi Opara, for allegedly defrauding unsuspecting victims on social media.

Opara, who was arrested alongside his accomplice simply identified as Suraj, was accused of defrauding his victims on the pretext of sending them expensive gifts and foreign currency.

In a statement issued on Monday by the Rachakonda Cybercrime Police, the suspects who were both residents of Goutham Buddha Nagar in Greater Noida were arrested on Saturday.

The statement read: “Henry who came to this country on medical visa for a surgery, later married an Indian woman from Karnataka and settled in Hyderabad.

“He later became a part-time football coach in New Delhi, where he met his fellow Nigerians who committed online frauds including gift frauds, job frauds and loan frauds.

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“Henry too adopted the same modus operandi to earn easy money and joined them and started cheating people online.

“They fraudulently procured the bank accounts to carry out their transactions.

“In December 2020, they cheated a person from Hyderabad on the pretext of sending gifts and foreign currencies and fabricated a story that the parcel was seized by customs at Delhi airport, and to get it released, they made the victim to transfer money into bank accounts provided by Suraj.

“Following a complaint from the victim, the cybercrime police booked a case and with the help of technical clues, traced and nabbed the suspects.

“They were produced before the court on Sunday and remanded in judicial custody.”

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