Operatives of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Command of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), have arrested two suspected members of a cybercrime syndicate who specialise in impersonating government officials on Facebook.
While parading the suspects in Abuja on Tuesday, the Commandant of the FCT command, Olusola Odumosu, said the suspects had opened a fake Facebook account in his name to swindle Nigerians of their hard-earned money.
“Upon this discovery, I gave a directive to the intelligence and investigation team and the Anti-Fraud unit to unravel the person(s) behind the fake Facebook account.
“Today, the manhunt which began about seven months ago, followed by a well-coordinated covert operation by my men, with the assistance of our counterparts in Delta and Anambra State Command, finally paid off as we have in our custody the masterminds behind the fraudulent Facebook account,” he said.
He gave the names of the suspects as Henry Ushie Odep, male, 34 years old, from Cross Rivers and Emanuel Ushie Odep, male, 23 years old, from Cross Rivers State.
One of the suspects, Emmanuel Ushie was the first to be apprehended after being lured to Abuja, Odumosu said, adding that he made a useful confessional statement which led to the arrest of Henry Ushie Odep, his elder brother, who had the phone used to operate the fake Facebook account on him at the point of arrest in Asaba, Delta State.
“Emmanuel confessed that his brother, Henry Ushie Odep, is a ‘Yahoo boy’ and was the one that created the fake Facebook account bearing Olusola Odumosu immediately after he was appointed as the FCT Commandant in August 2023.
“He admitted to being the one withdrawing monies sent to the Opay account by his brother (Henry) through POS machines until he was arrested by the officers of the FCT Command in Abuja,” Odumosu said.
On his part, Henry said he started online fraud in 2016 and he is the one who lured his younger brother, (Emmanuel Ushie) into the fraudulent act because he was disturbing him for (small small) funds.
He confessed to duping a lot of unsuspecting Nigerians of different sums of money under different guises in cyberspace.
“Investigation revealed that they operate Opay, moniepoint and Palmpay accounts to receive money from unsuspecting persons, but no bank account with traditional commercial banks.
“They also used two accounts belonging to one Victory Chinagorom, who according to them never knew they were into cyber fraud,” the NSCDC boss said.
According to Henry, his friend, Chibuike Okorie introduced him to cyber crime. The said Chibuike is currently in Kuwait as he has relocated from Nigeria.
The Command said it was still investigating the case, noting that the suspects would be prosecuted according to the extant laws after findings.