Federal Capital Territory Command (FCT) of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) yesterday paraded two brothers for impersonating its commandant, Mr Olusola Odumosu, and operating a fake Facebook account in his name to defraud innocent Nigerians.
The siblings, who were paraded at the command’s headquarters in Abuja yesterday are Henry Ushie Odep, male, 34 years, a graduate of statistics from Anambra State University and Emanuel Ushie Odep, male, 23 years, both from Cross Rivers State.
While parading the suspects, Odumosu said, the duo operated a fake Facebook account in his name and fraudulently operated Opay and Moniepoint accounts which they used in defrauding their victims under the pretext of getting them jobs, promotions as well as secure overseas training.
Olusola revealed that sometime in September 2023, his office alerted the public of the existence of a fake Facebook account opened by criminals in his name.
He said upon the discovery, he gave a directive to the intelligence and investigation team and the anti-fraud unit to unravel the person(s) behind the fake Facebook account. He announced that seven months later, followed by a well-coordinated covert operation by his men, and the assistance of his counterparts in Delta and Anambra State commands, their manhunt paid off as they now have the masterminds of the fraudulent Facebook account in custody.
He said one of the suspects, Emmanuel Ushie was the first to be apprehended after being lured to Abuja, adding that he made a very useful confessional statement which led to the arrest of Henry Ushie Odep, his elder brother, who incidentally, had the phone used to operate the fake Facebook account 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.
Odumosu said Emmanuel also admitted to being the one withdrawing monies sent to the Opay account by his brother (Henry) through Point of Sales (PoS) machines until he was arrested by the officers of the FCT command in Abuja.
On his part, Henry Ushie Odep confessed that he started online fraud in 2016 and admitted to luring his younger brother, (Emmanuel Ushie) into the fraudulent act because he was disturbing him for funds. He confessed to duping many unsuspecting Nigerians of different sums of money under different guises in cyberspace.
He also disclosed that he is the same person behind the defrauding of so many people through a fake Facebook account opened in the name of the late assistant commandant of the corps (ACH) Helen Amakiri, eight years ago (2016) who was an assistant commandant-general then.
Odumosu further revealed that further investigation showed that the suspects operated Opay, Moniepoint and Palmpay accounts to receive money from their victims, but had 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 following people, Amadi Chisom, 31-year- old and Mrs. Okafor Evelyn, 24 years whose names came up in the course of investigation and arrested alongside the principal suspects had been granted bail, pending when they would be required in the course of prosecution.
The exhibits recovered from the suspects included Moniepoint PoS machine, Opay PoS machine, one Tecno Spark 10 phone, Tecno POP 8 as well as an Infinix phone (1).
