The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, has
arrested a Lagos State University graduate for cloning the Facebook accounts of
prominent Nigerians and using same to defraud unsuspecting Nigerians.
Before his arrest, yesterday, Anthony Ezechukwu, 38, had
successfully used the names of Finance Minister, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala; wife of Lagos State Governor, Dame Abimbola
Fashola, Federal Capital Territory Minister, Aisha Bala Mohammed and the
Director of the Abuja Geographical Information Systems, AGIS, Jamilah Tangaza
to transact his illegal business and smile to the bank.
According to EFCC, Ezechukwu went on to solicit for various
forms of business and assistance that fetched him hundreds of thousands of
Naira after cloning the accounts of the prominent Nigerians.
Findings showed that in each of the instances, Ezechukwu
devised clever baits to lure his victims. Once he successfully opened a
Facebook account with the false identity of a Mrs. Fashola, he began to send
out messages soliciting for friendship, which yielded enormous responses from
innocent respondents, who wanted to seize the moment to be friend to the Lagos
First Lady.
But on noticing the stream of friends on the Facebook, the
suspect started directing them to ‘her personal assistant’, who in turn
demanded for various sums of money from them to connect them with influential
people in government and the society.
Also, in the account he opened using the name and photograph
of Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Ezechukwu claimed that he had job offers and
directed interested job seekers to ‘her schedule officer’ (he also doubles as
schedule officer) who in turn asked them to make payments into a designated
bank account.
How he met his waterloo
But Ezechhukwu met his waterloo when he cloned the Facebook
account of Jamilah Tangaza, the current AGIS Director, who is an ICT expert and
had served as media director to the FCT Minister, Bala Mohammed before her
recent appointment.
With his address as www.facebook.com/agis.jamilahtangaza.9,
Ezechukwu set about exploiting the office of the influential AGIS boss to have
his cut of the lucrative apple that is Abuja property sector.
His bait came in the form of a message: “In my certified,
endorsed and approved capacity, as the Director General of Abuja Geographical
Information System, AGIS, officially appointed by FCT minister (Senator Bala
Mohammed) and his administration on presidency acceptance and approvals (sic)
to take control of all lands and houses sales (sic) in FCT Abuja.
“Then I warned, using this medium to advised (sic) the
general public those who wish to buy land and houses in FCT Abuja to channel
all the inquiries, consultation and payment to me…”
The poorly constructed message notwithstanding, some persons
who are desperate to own land or houses in the FCT fell for it and began to
wire money into his account.
The Facebook account he opened in the name of the wife of
the FCT minister, Aisha Muhammed, turned out to be very rewarding.
In a post on the account, he claimed that the FCT had soft
loan worth N10 million for disbursement to individuals but offered forms to
interested persons at the rate of N100, 000.
Unknown to the public that it was a scam, a certain Usman
Ahmed paid N100, 000 into a designed account with a new generation bank.
Ezechukwu was, however, nabbed following a complaint by
Tangaza. He is currently assisting investigators probing the scam and will be
arraigned in court as soon as investigation is concluded.
In a statement in Abuja, yesterday, the Acting Head of Media
for the EFCC, Mr. Wilson Uwujaren, warned members of the public to be wary of
relationships in the social media that come with solicitations of any kind, and
to be circumspect in responding to gratuitous offers that look too good to be
true.
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