The Police in Delta State have warned Point of Sale (PoS) operators to disengage from transactions above N500,000 due to the upsurge of criminals devising alternate means to disburse illegally acquired funds.
The warning on Thursday followed a developing case of kidnap where a PoS operator was found guilty after providing her business account to allegedly receive the sum of N4m ransom.
The spokesperson of the state police command, SP Bright Edafe on his X page, shared a video of the suspect who admitted to her involvement in the case while stating she was unaware of the reason for the fund.
The female PoS operator, whose identity was concealed in the footage, said that she had received the sum from one Timothy Ogenechukwu, a frequent customer of hers before the recent transaction.
“He has been doing transactions with me, maybe at times 5,000 or 2,000,” she told the police, adding that this time, the transaction was larger—4 million Naira.
According to her, Ogenechukwu did not provide any clear reason for the massive deposit, but “only called me that morning and said I should check my account.”
“I didn’t know,” she further said, claiming she had no prior knowledge that the money in question was related to criminal activity, specifically a ransom payment from a kidnapping victim.
However, she admitted making a profit of 40,000 Naira from the transaction.
Reacting, Edafe revealed that said sum was from a victim who had been kidnapped, stressing that PoS should be mindful of who they do transactions with, especially if such transactions are relatively high.
He said, “I have been talking and educating people on social media, particularly PoS operators. Any person who wants to do transactions above 500,000 naira should go to the bank.
“Whenever you ask a PoS operator if you are receiving money too much that is unreasonably high, understand that there is an element of crime in it because they are supposed to go to the bank.”