According to hundreds of leaked papers and testimony obtained by the BBC, a violent mafia-style group in Nigeria linked to murder and fraud has entered the country’s political system and launched a worldwide scamming operation well beyond Nigeria’s boundaries.
The ‘Black Axe’ gang has been operating in Nigeria for decades and is one of the most feared organized criminal syndicates in the nation. In Nigeria, membership in these syndicates, sometimes called as “cults” or “fraternities,” is illegal.
BBC Africa Eye has been investigating the Black Axe for the past two years, chatting to former members and looking through hundreds of stolen papers from a number of key members of the organisation. Although the whole cache of stolen information could not be validated, the BBC was able to verify critical papers.
- Nigeria: Deadly attack on village in northwestern state of Kaduna
- Rampage increases fears among Asian Americans
Among our findings were emails that suggest a prominent Nigerian businessman and 2019 APC Party candidate for political office, Augustus Bemigho, was a senior member of Black Axe and was involved in orchestrating fraudulent internet scams netting millions of dollars.
The cache of documents contained more than 18,000 pages from an email account linked Mr Bemigho, including emails that suggest he sent guidance on scamming to a network of collaborators on 62 occasions and communicated with others about specific scamming targets.
“We have removed him close to 1M dollar,” says one email sent to Mr Bemigho, referring to a victim. The email contains the victim’s full name, email address and number, and instructions on how to progress the scam.
The BBC tracked down two apparent scamming victims from Mr Bemigho’s emails, who say they were defrauded of approximately $3.3m (£2.4m). Operations by international law enforcement agencies indicate that Black Axe’s scamming profits may run into the billions. The BBC contacted Mr Bemigho but he did not respond to the allegations.
Some of the material in the leaked documents – showing the graphic results of the gang’s activities – is too horrifying to publish. But the data paints a unique portrait of the Black Axe operations between 2009 and 2019, and suggests the gang has penetrated Nigerian politics in its home region of Edo State to a shocking extent.
Two documents state that in Benin City, 35 million naira (more than £64,000) was funnelled to the Neo-Black Movement of Africa (NBM) – a registered company in Nigeria considered by some western law enforcement to be synonymous with Black Axe – to “protect votes” and secure victory in a governorship election in 2012.
In exchange for the support, the files suggest that “80 slots [were] allocated to NBM Benin Zone for immediate employment by the state government”.