NAIROBI, Kenya, Jun 2 – Detectives have established that Ghanaian national, Victor Anane has a criminal record of swindling particularly women millions of shillings spanning at least five years.
According to records seen by Shahidi News, Anane has being masquerading as a traveling preacher, targeting mostly middle aged women.
According to his profile, he targets women that are in stable employment, preferably in management positions that are not involved in romantic relationships.
His targets, police say are usually looking to settle down or seeking promotions at their places of work which the suspect promises to grant them through, “prayers and miracles.”
His last brush with police was in 2019.
This involved a woman working with a mechanical engineering company in Nairobi based in Westlands who was swindled close to Sh380,000 after being promised that her money would be ‘multiplied.’
According to the woman who sought anonymity, she first met Anane in 2019 in Nairobi.
Apparently, the Ghanaian shared with her details of her life and offered to ‘change her life’, for the better.
“He told me that he usually prays for people concerning their personal problems and that he would pray for me so that my star would shine, but first I would’ve to give him a certain amount of money so that it would multiply after prayers” the woman told Shahidi News.
In their first meeting on June 4, 2019, the woman met the suspect in Westlands before proceeding to her home in King’eero, Kiambu county where they put Sh30,000 inside a suitcase and proceeded to pray for it in anticipation that it would be multiplied.
“I gave him the Sh30,000 and after the prayer, the money multiplied and he locked them in a suitcase. He told me that the money had multiplied to Sh50 million but warned me that it was too hot and could not be touched,” she narrated of her ordeal.
Following that first ‘spiritual session’, Anane is then said to have further instructed the woman to bring Sh1 million within 21 days in order to mix with the alleged Sh50 million and safely remove it from the suitcase.
How she all along followed the instructions without asking a question, remains a puzzle.
On June 10, 2019, the fake preacher was then provided with another Sh20,000 as he incessantly told her that they were running out of time and that he required Sh1 million that would guarantee them millionaire status.
“On June 11, 2019 he called me and told me that he had obtained Sh600,000 and it was upon me to get the remaining Sh400,000. On June 12, I however told him that I only had Sh30,000. We prayed and then I had to look for that money because by this point I had no choice,” she said.
Having already contributed Sh 80,000, the woman was now on a mission to get Sh320,000.
In a moment of desperation, the woman withdrew Sh200,000 from the bank account of a Primary School, where she was a signatory.
“I delivered the money, he put it in the suitcase but he told me we had 2 hours to put the rest or all the money would be lost,” she said in an agitated voice.
“So I went to the office, got the remaining Sh120,000 from the company and Anane picked me up from the office as we headed to my house. We put the money together in the suitcase, and he told me we will open the suitcase in the morning together. By this point, I knew I would return the money from the office and school in no time and no one would even notice it was missing.”
On the fateful day, having been assured they would make Sh10 million from the Sh1 million, Ananwe was unreachable through his phone number and received her calls once.
“I will call you back,” those were the last words she heard from the man.
“After people from school and work realized their money was not there, I told them what had happened and even showed them where the money was…we opened the suitcase but it was empty. Now that I think of it, I think he might have been skimming the money when praying since he was doing it alone.”
The woman was forced to switch off her phone after attempts to evade co-workers proved futile.
On June 17, she reported the matter at the King’eero police station.
Three years later, the incident would come full circle after the suspect would swindle yet another woman.
In the latest incident, a case of yearning for cupid’s arrow, millions of shillings, a dating site and a wolf in sheep’s clothing masquerading as a man of the cloth-cum-witch doctor.
The series of events that led to a senior manager at a mobile money lending agency, Tala, witness her heart broken, after breaking from what seemed like a trance she was under, instigated by her Ghanian lover that swindled her close to Sh9 million.
Her thrust to realization came about after her would be lover cum con artist took her to his residence in Transview estate in Athi River, Machakos County.
According to the woman, she met the man on an online dating site and instantly hit the ground running.
Anane, who masqueraded as a preacher would then go on to promise that her future was in her hands and he could turn her fortunes around.
Detectives from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) told Shahidi News that the fake preacher, now in police custody, has been targeting desperate women online.
His targets normally being successful women who we are single and deemed susceptible to his charm.
He would then go on to gain his target’s trust and tell them of his ability to, “work miracles,”
In the case concerning the manager from the lending agency, he promised her that she would be promoted after giving him the money.
What followed puzzled even detectives as over a period of time, the woman gave the preacher who was at that point her boyfriend close to Sh9 million in unclear circumstances.
Preliminary investigations have revealed the money might have been obtained from accounts registered to Tala.
Sleuths have told Shahidi News that the woman reported the matter to the police after she noticed witchcraft paraphernalia in his house.
“The woman told us she realized she was swindled after noticing he was practicing black magic despite repeatedly telling her he was a man of God,” a senior detective privy to the on going investigations told Shahidi News.
Detectives now believe the man might have also been involved in a fake currency syndicate after recovering Sh76,000 in fake currency.
Criminal Record
In 2007, Anane was arrested in Ghana after duping a man that he could triple his money. He ended up serving time in jail for obtaining money under false pretenses.
In 2011, the accused relocated to Kenya establishing his base of operation in Kisumu.
In 2015, he defrauded a banker after listing him as a guarantor in a bank loan he had secured.
This is not the first case involving Kenyans being duped particularly by foreigners after meeting online.
The trend is said to be on the rise in recent months.
Kenyans have been advised to be careful on who they interact with online as well as to avoid sharing personal information with strangers.
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