The Kaduna Zonal office of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on Wednesday arrested five suspected cyber criminals known as yahoo yahoo including two females in Barnawa Kaduna state.
The Kaduna zonal office also arraigned three suspects, Lawal Muhammad, Ibrahim Abdullahi Bazanga (a.k.a Danlami) and Emmanuel Ochonu before Justice Esther Y.B Lolo of the Kaduna State High Court, on a nine-count charge bordering on conspiracy, forgery and impersonation.
A statement by the EFCC Head of Media Kaduna Zonal Office, Zainab Sani Ahmed, said the modus operandi of the cyber fraudsters was to pose as United States soldiers on peacekeeping mission in Afghanistan, particularly on Facebook platform. “The suspected fraudsters who are from Edo and Kaduna states include two females and three males, all in their mid 20s and attending various universities both within and outside Nigeria. At the point of their arrest, they all claimed to be bloggers and experts in bitcoin business.
They stated that they operate by creating fake Facebook pages using display pictures and names belonging to mostly foreigners in order to deceive unsuspecting victims mostly females of white nationality.
“Another mode of operation is to link up with their other conspirators known as pickers residing in US and Ghana to help in receiving their loot via their dollar accounts domiciled in the US for onwards transfer to their boss in Nigeria after they must have duped their victims. They said that usually, they give 30% of their loot to these pickers while the remaining 70% is shared among the remaining members. “The fraudsters parade themselves with names like James Scott, Ibro wire (Ibrahim Idris AKA Ibro), Louis James, Carista Sadiq (Sadiq Idris), Griffen James, CBN Martins (Martins Abeku), Blessing Nicolas (Phil Nicholas), Esther Micheal (Xta Mikelz). Items recovered include a yellow ELEPAC generator, 2 HP and 1 Del laptop, 2 Huawei Network wifi, phones, wrist watch, sim cards and ATM cards.
They shall be prosecuted as soon as investigation is concluded.
Speaking on the trio charged for forgery and impersonation, the EFCC spokesman said, “trouble began for the three in January, 2019 following a case of fraud in which the principal suspect in trying to fulfil his administrative conditions, produced one Tijjani Adamu (now deceased) as his surety.
“The Commission’s investigations at authenticating the documents presented by Adamu, who claimed to be a senior civil servant and land owner within the court’s jurisdiction, as the court stipulated for a surety, proved that Adamu’s documents were not only forged but all those who undersigned them were impersonators.
“Adamu disclosed upon interrogation that Lawal Muhammad introduced him to the culprits who sourced and forged all the documents he presented as a purported eligible surety. Muhammad was consequently arrested. His arrest paved way for more fake documents to emanate. He linked Abdullahi Bazanga to some of the fake documents who also had to be arrested.
‘Muhammad and Bazanga pointed at Emmamnuel Ochonu, owner of a business centre along Bida Road, Kaduna as the one who does forging and counterfeiting for them. Forged documents recovered from them included, a certificate of occupancy, (CofO) and a “letter of authentication,” purportedly emanating and signed by the land officer, Chukun Local Government Area of Kaduna state.
Others are: letters of introduction from Kaduna State Water Corporation (KADSWAC) and Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) falsely indicating that the late Adamu was a staff of both KADSWAC and UBEC.
They all pleaded not guilty to all charges against them, while the judge adjourned the case to the July 12, 2019 for hearing on their bail application and ordered the defendants to be remanded in prison custody.
