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Zadock Angira and  Nyaboga Kiage

The Ghanaian suspected of defrauding a senior manager with a mobile money lending agency of Sh9 million in 2019 reportedly defrauded another woman of Sh400,000 by pretending he could turn the money into Sh10 million.

The female administration manager with an engineering firm in Westlands, Nairobi was forced to withdraw Sh200,000 from the account of a school where she was a signatory, borrow Sh120,000 from her work place and raise Sh80,000 from her savings.

Victor Anane, who had earlier been jailed in his home country for fraud, had asked the woman to raise Sh1 million which he would pray for to make it Sh10 million. 

Anane, who is said to be using mind games, masquerades as a preacher and approaches women with promises of making their lives better. When he wins their trust, he swindles them.

In the earlier case, he reportedly met his victim at Roast House in Nairobi on May 4, 2019 where he told her that he prayed for people “for their star to shine.”

“He then told me to look for money so that he could pray for it to multiply,” the victim said.

Too hot

On June 4, they met again and the man accompanied her to her house in King’eero to “pray” for the initial Sh30,000 the woman had raised.

He then claimed the money had multiplied and he put it in a suitcase which was securely locked.

“He initially told me the money would multiply to Sh50 million. He however told me that we could not use the money at that time since it was hot and could not be touched,” she wrote in her statement to the police.

She was then given 21 days to look for Sh1 million which was to be put together with the money that had already “multiplied”.

On June 10, the woman gave him Sh20,000 which he purported to have added to the amount in the suitcase.

He later told her to look for the Sh1 million before the deadline. The following day, he called the woman and told her that he had already secured Sh600,000 and told her to look for the Sh400,000 balance.

“On June 12 at around 7pm he came with Sh600,000 but I told him I had only managed to get Sh30,000. He then put them in the suitcase and prayed for the money,” she said.

The woman did not, however, witness the prayer session because she would be asked to leave the room.

Having raised Sh80,000 in total, the man urged her to raise the remaining Sh320,000 to make Sh1 million.

She yielded to pressure and the following day withdrew Sh200,000 from a school account where she was a signatory. She then took Sh120,000 from her workplace in the believe that she would refund the money the following day when it was multiplied. 

The man had told her that the Sh10 million proceeds from the prayer would be ready for use as soon as they put Sh1 million in the suitcase.

But as soon as she handed over final installment of Sh320,000, the man disappeared. When she called his number, he did not answer.  Two days later, the woman had to switch-off her phone because she could not explain to her bosses at work and the school management why she had not refunded the money that she had taken.

Later, accompanied by colleagues, they opened the suitcase only to find it empty.

It now dawned on her why she was being asked to leave the room when the money was being prayed for.

 “I could not tell whether he was putting the money in the suitcase or carrying it away,” she said. 

When Anane was arrested on Monday, detectives recovered Sh76,000 in fake currency and other materials used in printing fake bank notes. Detectives suspect he uses such fake currency to dupe his victims.

Investigations reveal that Anane had been arrested and jailed in his home country for fraud. 

People Daily has established that on August 16, 2007, he was arrested with Isaac Mensah, 41, after they tricked a man that they could to triple his money. 

The man, identified as Jerry Amenohor, was then handed neatly cut in size stack of papers but with both ends of the bundle covered by genuine bank notes. He was, however, followed by two men who claimed to be police officers and took away the “money” from him.

Biblical verses

He quickly alerted police officers attached to Korle-Bu police station in Accra and the two were arrested.

After serving a jail term, Anane left Accra in 2011 for Kenya and settled in Kisumu where he set up a hotel in Okore estate which specialised in West African dishes.

A banker based in Kisumu, who only identified himself as Daniel, told People Daily that Anane visited a local bank on several occasions where he would change foreign currencies into Kenyan shillings.

“That is how I met him and he would invite me to his hotel but I never got a chance to visit,” he said.

The banker said he received a call yesterday from a company in Nairobi and the caller told him that the suspect took a loan from them and listed him as a guarantor. 

The banker said he last met Anane in 2015 in Kisumu before he disappeared until People Daily contacted him yesterday. 

“It’s been a long since I last saw him. I am shocked that he has been around because I believed he had left Kenya for his home country,” he said. 

On his official Facebook account, Anane fronts himself as a preacher and shares Bible verses and inspirational quotes. 

For instance, on November 26, 2015, he posted that everything was possible as long as one believes in God. 

“If God can move you from January to December. He will surely move you from shame to fame, insults to results, sorry to glory, disgrace to grace,” he posted.