The Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offences Commission (ICPC) has handed back the sum of N325,000 to Innocent Okpanachi, a job seeker who had been swindled of the sum by one Mohammed Abdullahi-Habib, who had posed as a senior officer of the Nigeria Customs Service.

In a statement on Monday, Rasheedat Okoduwa, Spokesperson for the ICPC, said that the recovered cash was handed over to the owner by Tunji Jabaru of the Asset Tracing, Recovery and Management Unit of ICPC.

According to the statement, the scammer, Abdullahi-Habib, was said to have collected the amount from Okpanachi through a third party who is now at large, with the promise to secure a job for him at the Customs Service. He even issued the unsuspecting victim with a letter of employment with which he approached the Customs authorities only to discover that it was fake.

Okpanachi then petitioned the ICPC after four years of failed attempts to recover his money from Habib, especially as the middle man had disappeared into thin air.

“The Commission promptly swung into action and investigations revealed that the suspect had indeed fraudulently obtained the money from his victim,” the ICPC spokesperson stated.

“The said amount was recovered from the suspect, Mohammed Habib, and then handed over to the petitioner.”

Okoduwa stated that the Okpanachi, who had almost given up all hopes of recovering his money, was full of thanks for the commission for the assistance he had received.

“Even though I had lost hope, ICPC did a wonderful job of ensuring that justice was restored,” the statement quoted Okpanachi as saying.