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[email protected] Toronto, Ontario, Canada

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FRAUDS AND NIGERIA'S INTERNATIONAL IMAGE

Arrested: Ededem Edem Offense: DOB: 05/10/1977 Gender: Male Race: Black Warrant Issued: Confirmed with: Date Arrested: November 28, 2006 County Arrested: Fort Bend Other Information: Ededem Edem, president of Houston-based Edison Medical Supplies Inc. was indicted by a Harris County grand jury on Nov. 27, 2006, for second-degree felony aggregate theft by a government contractor for billing and receiving payments of over $100,000 from the Medicaid program for adult diapers that were never delivered to Medicaid recipients. The indictment states that the theft occurred between Jan 1, 2003, and March 9, 2006. The Texas Attorney General's Medicaid Fraud Unit arrested Edem at his Sugar Land home. Edison Medical Supplies is located at 9894 Bissonnet Street in Houston. A conviction on the theft charge carries punishment of 2-20 years in prison and a fine of up to $10,000. Information current as of November 29, 2006.

here are rogues and crooks among us. There are many in our midst, in the Nigerian community, who are bad eggs, thieves, crooks and fraudsters. These are men and women who are determined to live well, wine and dine in the best hotels and restaurants, live in opulence and in the biggest of homes in North America, Europe and at home in Nigeria without working for it, without sweat. These are men and women who pay cash down for properties those of us who are working hard, sweating and working 24/7 cannot afford. These are the lowlifes among us and we must not habour them any longer; we must expose them, because we know them and we know where they are hiding.

The Medicaid fraud in the Greater Houston Area (GHA) uncovered by Attorney General of Texas Greg Abbott has soiled our name and has also thrown a challenge at the Nigerian Community in Texas. There are several Nigerians on the list of crooks and fraudsters who stole more than $7.7 million dollars of tax payers money set aside for Medicaid. I am sure many Nigerians in Texas are familiar with one of the ring leaders of this crime, Mr. Ededem Edem. Mr. Edem was arrested and paraded for the world to see (http://www.fraudupdate.com/), but there are others still at large. Only 15 out of these 33 lowlifes have been arrested. Some have already fled Nigeria and we want them returned to the United States to face trial.

The unfortunate side to crimes and frauds perpetrated by Nigerians overseas is the fact that many of our people know about these crooks, are familiar with these perpetrators, condone them rather than report and hand them over to the police, tolerate them rather than provide information to the police hot line and put the criminals away. Many of us even attend the same churches with them and are fully aware that these people have no discernible means of livelihood, but we keep mute, say nothing and hope that they will change their ways. But these people are not only bringing shame to those of us and most of us who work hard and are honest in our ways; they are insulting us for working hard, they are laughing at us for been foolish and willing to work.

The "largest development" of bilking and fraud in the history of Texas was how the office of the Attorney General of Texas described the Medicaid fraud. He said these lowlifes billed Medicaid for supplies that were never provided. He added that Ededem Edem used the identities of seniors and mentally retarded citizens to bill for services never requested nor provided. Unfortunately some of us must know that Mr. Edem was living beyond his means or that he is defrauding. Sadly some of us see it as 'reparation,' but what Edem and his co-travelers are doing is robbery and in some ways murder.

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Those who steal from a system that is meant to provide medical aid to people and defraud that system to the tune of over $7.5 million dollars are wicked. Many innocent people may not be able to get the treatment, drugs and supplies they need to sustain and preserve their lives because of the likes of Edem and their dubious desire to get rich at the expense of the rest of society.

It goes without saying that most of our people who engage in such practices are the rejects of the Nigerian society, the non-professionals, predominantly the refugee seekers who ought not to be given any room but who were lucky enough to be here for longer than necessary while their refugee claims are pending and human rights lawyers and interest groups are trying to help them. These people pay back in such bad and crooked coins and wicked ways that no one cares to pity them when they are deported, but they must be made to pay dearly for their crimes before they are deported. Someone suggested that the American, UK and other governments in the West should send these lowlifes on trial here in the West and then return them to Nigeria to serve their imprisonment at Kirikiri, Agodi and other poorly maintained jails around the nation where they will not have access to television or any decent meals. How do you return the good done to you by these societies- allowing you to stay here when you really have no rights, giving you opportunities you were denied back home - and you pay them back with robbery, fraud, wickedness and murder?

The reverse involved in this situation is seen in the stealing and looting of the national treasury by our own leaders in Nigeria; most funds meant for the provision of drugs, healthcare, social infrastructures, hospital supplies, equipments, roads are looted and used to build mansions, to ride Mercedes Beast, Hummer, Pajero, Sport Utility Vehicles (SUVs), BMW and other exotic limousines. These fraudsters also come here to steal and rob and use their stolen funds to build mansions in their villages in Nigeria and to buy huge houses here in the West. Their choice cars are the jeeps by BMW, Mercedes, Honda, Hummer, Acura and the like, and then women who only see and worship dollars.

The Nigerian government is duty-bound to cooperate with the American government and ensure that these wicked people are sent back to the United States to face trial. The other day it was the CNN that did a documentary on Nigerian fraudsters, which earned the flak of some Nigerian leaders. We must not shy away from the truth as a people. We must acknowledge that there are bad eggs among us and we know them. These days most of the fraudsters and credit card rogues in Toronto - I have reliably learnt - have relocated to Brampton, a city near Toronto. Some of us know people who are living in houses worth $500,000 or more and have no decent work you can point to. Of course, they have vocations, which are often hidden but never well kept from the suspicious eyes and ears of several of us. We must not allow the old mentality and fear of not wanting to be the "alakoba," the one who expose the thief or the crook, but why not? Why not give the lowlife away? When you prevent a credit card thief, you are helping to protect yourself and your neighbour, and even preventing unnecessary pain and anguish to someone you might know. When you expose someone working under the table and also collecting social security, you are preventing a lowlife from eating and living on your taxes, because your taxes fund the lowlife's cheap life and the more there are lowlifes like him, the more taxes you may have to pay. I was told a true story yesterday of how some small white boys in Maryland, USA took a Nigerian man to their grandmother's house after she hit the man's car and ran away. They told him not to worry and that they will take him to her house; she is after all their grandmother. They took him to her house and grandma was shocked to see them. When grandma tried to deny it, the boys told her not to lie and insisted that they witnessed it all! Now ABC has been to Nigeria and will be airing their stories of 419ers on Friday, December 8, 2006 on 20/20 in Canada.

It is unacceptable for Nigerians to bring these foul baggages here from home. Most of the crooked things that are done in Nigeria and for which people receive chieftaincy titles, national honours and honourary degrees will be adequately punished here, and that is the way it should be. Insanity begins and must end in Nigeria; importing it here should not be allowed at all, and we must be prepared as a people, as communities and as organizations to expose such crimes and the criminals in our midst. We should never be seen to be condoning it or encouraging it. We condone it when we turn the other way and pretend not to see, and we encourage it when we relate with, are close acquaintances with the crooks and fraudsters, and accept gifts and support from them. We should know better and respond appropriately. The Nigerian community in Texas must support and cooperate with the authorities there to expose and bring these lowlifes to book.