| Name: |
Arinze Celestine Udemezue |
| Alias: |
Arinze |
| History: |
- Nigeria Police Force '92-'94
- Security work from 1994-2004 including Schlumberger Oilfield Services
- 2004: Iran, Jordan and Lebanon
- Oct. 2004: worked in Iraq
- from Feb. 2005 to present: works for SITCO - a civilian
contractor to the U.S. Military, located at the site of the
former Iraqi air force base, now transformed into Camp Cooke,
Al Taji, Iraq.
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| Born: |
Sept. 18, 1973
Lagos, Nigeria |
| Passport: |
A2181516 |
| Family: |
- Sister - Felicia Udemezue
- Father - Thomas Udemezue,
- Wife - Amaka Udemzue
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| Current Employment: |
Driver (Escort) for SITCO construction company badge number 50044,
located at Camp Cooke, Al Taji, Iraq, approx. 27 km NW of downtown Baghdad |
| Email: |
celearinze@yahoo.co.uk |
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Arinze Udemezue
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Our Man In Baghdad
Arinze Udemezue is a Nigerian scammer "Oga" - which means "boss" or "chief". "Oga" is a very relative title and is often used as a sign of respect towards a senior scammer by another that is lower in status. Udemezue is involved in helping illegal immigrants (his fellow scammers) get into Iraq - a scheme that involved a few different scammers.
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October 2004, Arinze arrives in Iraq from Iran - working as an escort/driver at Camp Cooke Military Base in Iraq |
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"Oga" Arinze Udemezue
So what do we know about Udemezue? Quite a lot...
Udemzue contacted Rowland Emeremini in Nigeria to discuss an arrangement where Rowland would recruit scammers from various countries for civilian contracting jobs at the base in Iraq - concealing their past criminal history with forged documents. The benefit to the scammers was the opportunity to "launder" their own identities by holding down official jobs in Iraq for 6 months. After that they could leave for Europe or the USA as "new men". The benefit to Udemezue / Ikpfuran / Emeremini was that the recruits would have to pay for the job offers, fake plane tickets, fake passports and supporting fake Police character documents...as well as any officials that needed bribing along the way.
Using his Iranian contacts, Arinze would send Iranian invitation letters (a.k.a. IV) to Rowland which he would pass on to their customers. The buyers would be directed to take the IV to the Iranian Embassy in Abuja, Nigeria. Arinze would call the Ambassador on the day of their visit to confirm the "truth" of their claims. Arinze also arranged an inside man at the Airport to stamp their passports, a driver to collect them on arrival and Police character documents obtained through his sister's contacts. After reaching Iran they would be given instruction on how to get into Iraq - for pick-up by one of Udemezue's drivers.
Here we see Arinze advising a customer how to reach Camp Cooke military base:
[Note: Some quotes modified to be more readable, due to scammer illiteracy.]
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HERE IS THE DIRECTION U GIVE TO ANY TAXI AT THE AIRPORT. YOUR TWO NAMES ARE ALREADY AT THE CAMP GATE WHERE THE TAXI MAN WILL DROP YOU OFF. YOU ARE OKECHUKWU UMEH AND OKEY MARTIN OGUGUA. DONT TRAVEL AS MORE THAN TWO PERSONS TO AVOID QUESTIONS FROM THE SECURITY. THEY KNOW THAT TWO NIGERIANS ARE COMING.
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Sister Act
Arinze's sister Felicia recognised what a risky game he was playing, but that didn't prevent her from helping him get hold of a Police Clearance certificate:
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Authentic document "paid for" by Arinze's sister |
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[Felicia Udemezue wrote to confirm the Police clearance document:]
Arii,
Villeworth is processing this for you and it will be an authentic
document. I do not like the idea of doing this for anyone I do not know, your
friends, we do not know their past, we do not even know the kind of
people they are and what they are capable of doing.
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Here we see Arinze lying to a local employer about some of his new customers...
Jobs For The Boys
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Arinze Udemezue |
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I told you of my two brothers that just came into Iraq few days ago looking for job. They equally have a vetting letter from Nigeria police with them.
THEIR NAMES AND PASSPORT NUMBERS ARE:
NAME COUNTRY PASSPORT NO.
1-ONYEKWELU JOHN NIGERIAN A3043387A
2-AMADI UCHE GERALD '' A3043388A
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He conveniently forgot to mention that their "vetting letter from Nigeria police" was a forgery based on the one supplied to him by his sister... who once again attempted to talk him out of it:
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I do not like this business of getting people into Iraq that you are into with Anthony. Have a rethink and stop it. If Onyekwelu and his friend could not come in, they will hold you responsible for making them lose their money.
If the people arrive and get into criminal activity, they will be traced to you.
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She was right about that! What if the U.S. Military found out that one of their trusted civilian contractors was actively bringing Nigerian scammers onto the base? What if an informant came forward and revealed the whole scheme to a high ranking military officer in Iraq? We'd hate to think that our suggestion to one such informant that he should SPILL THE WHOLE STORY had anything to do with what happened next...
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His present passport, as fake as his whole life
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Scammers - You're FIRED!
It seems that on October 12, 2005, almost 12 months to the day that he began scamming in Iraq, Udemezue and his fellow scammers were FIRED from their jobs at Camp Cooke! He and the half-dozen or so fraudsters he had set up as Drivers / Escorts on the base, were ordered to leave the protection of the camp.
Our informant gave us a copy of one of the notices of termination that was sent out:
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We are sorry to inform you that we have terminated your contract as of tomorrow thursday 13/10/2005.
So please return back all SITCO assets & contact with Financial department to settle your account Termination.
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Here's how Udemezue explained it...
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A lot of alcoholics?
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Sister, am sorry for not replying on time. I have a problem in sending the money in my hands. I am out of job, my company was ask to leave the camp cos the violated camp rules. A search was conducted and a lot of alcoholic and cell phones was found from our camp, the people involved have been ask to leave the camp...
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Another scammer employed at the base wrote:
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...sitco contract jobs finished on 11-10-2005 so everybody is running around looking for a job because the captain gave Sitco some days to leave this camp...
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This led Udemezue's sister to wonder what might happen to him...
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Now that you people are being asked to leave the camp, will it be safe to live outside? We still see a lot of reports of violence in Iraq every day on TV...
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Indeed we do. But why be negative? We fully expect the peace-loving Iraqis to show compassion to these foreign criminals as they wander the streets in search of better fortune. Maybe the good people will welcome Udemezue and the other Nigerian scammers... and they will all sip iced-coffee under the shade of a palm tree? Maybe not.
Of course, we wish them well in their fight for survival, and we will continue to monitor the situation... in the hope of lending a hand wherever possible. We always like to do what we can for the scammers of the world.
How many were shoved out the gate?
Meanwhile, let's look at our final fraudster tally for this Pillory entry. It's not a complete list as our informant didn't know some of the names. eg. We believe 8 to 10 scammers were fired and ordered to leave the camp. Here are the names of the criminals we know about:
It's nice to see a little justice at work. We will update this page when the fate of Arinze Udemezue and his Nigerian Gangsters in Iraq becomes known. (And if you have not yet, read this page about the other Nigerian gangsters we have discovered in Iraq!)
[Date of entry: Nov 3, 2005]
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