- Deceased’s family petitions EFCC, seeks probe as suspect allegedly seizes victim’s corpse
A Nigerian man, Ifeanyi Maxwell Onwubiko, has been fingered in the death of an American woman whom he allegedly lured into the country, got married to and defrauded of thousands of dollars.
Onwubiko, met the deceased, Angelica Cervantez Santillan, aged about 50, on social media and they had about four years of online romance before he invited her to Nigeria.
The Point gathered that the lady had been sending money to her Nigerian lover until she came to Nigeria in March this year and they got married on May 10, 2024.
Santillan, who was said to have been married in America with children, reportedly developed severe ailment while with Onwubiko in Abia State but the man allegedly claimed he had no money to take his supposed wife to the hospital for treatment.
In a video obtained by The Point which Onwubiko sent to the eldest son of the woman, Andrew Barela, the middle aged man was heard demanding for money while filming Santillan who was apparently in great pain and distressed inside her lover’s apartment.
The suspect was heard telling Santillan’s son that she could no longer stand to defecate by herself as she was soaked in her feces and urine.
The American eventually died on May 19, 2024, nine days after the supposed wedding ceremony with Onwubiko.
Meanwhile, the family of Santillan has disclosed that Onwubiko has refused to release the corpse of Santillan to them even as they accused him of causing her death in order to profit from her possessions.
Onwubiko was said to be demanding more money from the family of the late American and that he wants a share of the life insurance policy of Santillan as the legitimate husband.
It was gathered that the corpse is still at the FMC in Umuahia, Abia State.
However, Santillan’s family has petitioned the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, demanding a probe into the death of the lady who was born on July 12, 1974.
In the petitioned addressed to the Executive Chairman of EFCC, Ola Olukoyode, and titled, “Petition for Inquiry into the Death of Angelica Cervantez Santillan,” the family’s lawyer, Elizabeth A. Honce, accused Onwubiko of being a scammer who duped the deceased thousands of dollars, enticed her to Nigeria and watched her die in order to further rip the family of and profit from Santillan’s life insurance benefits.
Explaining how Onwubiko allegedly defrauded the deceased and made her children go bankrupt, the lawyer said, “Ms. Santillan started communicating online four years ago, in 2020, with a man whose name she believed to be Rhys Thompson, a man who was supposedly a doctor for the United Nations. Her son investigated this and found out that this was a scam. At first, this person denied it was a scam, but ultimately in July or August of 2023, the family found out that this man was, in fact, a scammer who was Nigerian; however, he confessed his love to Ms. Santillan and started having an online relationship from then on up to the time of her death.
“During the time of this relationship, Ms. Santillan sent many MoneyGram payments to this scammer, who goes by the name of Ifeanyi Maxwell Onwubiko. Additionally, her family observed that she opened various bank accounts to which they have no access, where she would deposit cheques and send the money to Mr. Onwubiko in Bitcoin. She even invested in a fake website he told her, and she lost money there, also. She was also functioning as a money mule for Mr. Onwubiko and laundering money he was receiving from scamming and putting it into Bitcoin.
“Finally, Mr. Onwubiko urged Ms. Santillan to come to Nigeria to visit him and see his roots, meet his family, and to have a traditional wedding ceremony over in Nigeria. Ms. Santillan left from the United States to Nigeria on March 24, 2024, and she was supposed to return to the United States on June 2, 2024.
“Before leaving, Ms. Santillan purchased a wedding dress and wedding rings. It is believed she also took approximately $500 cash with her. After she got to Nigeria, she posted photos of them on Facebook, looking like they were happy and she indicated that they were going to get married on May 10, 2024. The same week she arrived, she and Mr. Onwubiko started demanding that her son, Andrew Barela send more money, who sent approximately $1,500 more. All this in less than a month. After initially posting happy photos of themselves online, Ms. Santillan went dark, as it were, to friends and family. The messages she was sending out did not sound like they were coming from her.”
Honce further disclosed that Santillan had a blood condition for which she needed to take medicine every day and was also suffering Type II diabetes, adding that, “She took Metformin and insulin for the diabetes and Lactulose for the blood condition. She had taken enough medicine with her on the trip to last her during her visit.”
“Mr. Barela was finally able to talk to his mother two times from May 13, 2024, until her date of death on May 19, 2024. She kept saying, “I’m just here, I’m just here.” She could never tell her son where she was or what was happening and Andrew Barela did not believe she was able to speak freely, because this was not how his mother’s normal behaviour was. She indicated to her son that Mr. Onwubiko was not treating her right, and that he was threatening that the people down the street were going to come and beat her up. In the last videos of Ms. Santillan before she died, she is covered in bruises and her big toenail on her right toe was ripped,” the lawyer stated in the petition.
She dismissed Onwubiko’s claim of getting married to the American lady, positing that if it actually happened, it would have been done under duress.
“There is reason to believe that at best, Mr. Onwubiko exploited and scammed Ms. Santillan out of thousands and thousands of dollars and neglected her and let her die; or, at worst, that he scammed her, got her over in Nigeria and stopped her medications on purpose to try to extort money from her loved ones, and she either died negligently or purposefully at his hands and those of his unnamed cohorts. As to whether there were ritual practices that Ms. Santillan was subjected to during the torture she received at the hands of Mr. Onwubiko, Mr. Barela is unaware. It has been almost unendurable for Mr. Barela and his siblings to think of this happening to their mother, and that the actions of Mr. Onwubiko’s exploitation of Ms. Santillan financially has now bankrupted the family and the three children are living in a motel at the present time,” she said.
Honce further called on the anti-graft body to swiftly investigate the alleged fraudulent activities of Onwubiko and how the American lady died.
Efforts by The Point to speak to Onwubiko and also confirm if the EFCC received the petition and what action has been taken so far were not successful.
