by Chi Ibe

Police Special Fraud Unit in Ikoyi, Lagos have arrested two people for pretending to be married in order to secure a United States visa.

Adetokunbo Adejayan,  35, a secondary school  teacher in Mafoluku, Oshodi, was said to have won the lottery in May 2012 and Juliet Adebisi were caught after the Assistant Regional Security Officer, United States Consulate General sent the SFU a petition and police investigation further revealed that the two were not married as claimed.

They were part of a fraud team that worked with pairing up US visa lottery winners with non-winners for onward “smuggling” to the US, Punch news reports.

[READ: Get ready: UK to implement £3,000 visa bond scheme for Nigerians in November ]

A statement by the SFU Public Relations Officer,  Ngozi Isintume-Agu, said, “Their method is to merge a visa lottery winner with a non-winner and package both to US.

“In this case, the sum of N1.5m was paid by Adebisi and she was purportedly joined in matrimony with Adejayan, who genuinely won an American Visa lottery.  Both suspects have made confessional statements that they are not legally married.”

Adejayan said: “It was my brother’s friend who played the lottery for me and he was the same person who called to tell me that I had won.  He advised me to get a ‘wife’ before coming to the US. He then introduced me to Segun, assuring me that he (Segun) would help.

“It was Segun that brought Adebisi for the arranged marriage and subsequent interview and visa.”

Adebisi on the other hand has paid Segun N1m in June 2012 to process her visa and another N500,000 for passports, medicals and training.

“It was Segun who booked the appointment for the suspects at the embassy as husband and wife. The fake marriage was arranged last year,” Commissioner of Police in charge of SFU,  Tunde Ogunsakin, said.

“Investigation is ongoing and effort is on top gear to arrest Segun and his cohorts.  The arrested suspects will be charged to court soon.”