Police Arrest 2 Suspects For Alleged ATM Swap In Niger

Police operatives attached to A Division Bida, Niger State have arrested two suspects, for allegedly swapping ATM cards and debiting N400,000 from their victim’s account.

The police spokesperson Wasiu Abiodun told journalists in Minna yesterday that Philip Adefemi 46 years old and Joseph Michael 42 years old, both from the Masaka area of Nasarawa State were arrested in Bida.
He said, “An incident of ATM card swapping was reported at A Division Bida, that on the same date at about 10 am, a victim was at a commercial bank in Bida to withdraw money, and he inserted his ATM card in the machine, but could not dispense cash.”

“As a result, a person behind the victim at the ATM gallery requested to assist him, and in the process, unknown to the victim that his card had been swapped. A few minutes later, he received a debit alert of N400,000.”

Abiodun said on receipt of the complaint, police operatives swung into action and arrested the suspects, while one other suspect known as Bala escaped.

He said during the preliminary investigation, 42 ATM cards were recovered from the suspects including that of the victim, and a Mercedes-Benz C230 with Reg. No Abuja KUJ 44 NT.

The police mouthpiece said that during interrogation, the suspects claimed they were coming from Abuja heading to Offa, Kwara State for burial and decided to spend the night in Bida then in the morning they tried to get some victims’ ATM cards from the gallery.

The police spokesperson said they confessed further that most of the cards were expired cards used for swapping, before using the victims’ cards for withdrawal after observing the password at the ATM.