ABUJA — 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; wives 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.
Anthony Ezechukwu, the suspect.
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.