19-Year-Old Undergraduate Narrates How He Impersonated Tinubu

The police in Lagos have arrested a 19-year-old student of Delta State Polytechnic, Emmanuel Eto, for allegedly defrauding victims through internet while posing as former Lagos State Governor and Leader of All Progressives Congress (APC), Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

According to Daily Independent Report;

He was arrested by the operatives of the State Investigation Bureau of Lagos State police headquarters when he attempted to defraud a fourth victim in Lagos having successfully defrauded three.

He was paraded on Wednesday by the commissioner of Police, Lagos State Police Command, Kayode Aderanti, who said that about three weeks he received  complaint  from one Retired Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIG), Alhaji Rahmam Akao, that someone was impersonating a renowned  senator on social media and defrauding unsuspecting victims.

He immediately directed the OC State investigation Bureau (SCIB), SP Ameh Akpa Veronica to investigate the case. SP Ameh Akpa Veronica immediately led a team of detectives who traced the suspect to Delta state where he was eventually apprehended.

Eto confessed to be an ND 2 student of Delta state Polytechnic Oghara saying he created a facebook account with the politician’s name which he used to lure his victims with a job offer.

It was learnt that he succeed to defrauding three persons before his arrest using a UBA account before he met his waterloo while attempting to defraud the fourth victim.

Eto, from Isoko South Local Government in Delta State, said, ”I was arrested for impersonating Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu. I am an ND2 mechanical Engineering Student of Delta State Polytechnic. I opened the account in January, 2015 with his name with the intent of luring people for recruitment. I did that because my father is late and my mother has been sick for a long while.

“She has high blood pressure and she has been in and out of the hospital. She was recently discharged from the hospital. Three people have paid money into the UBA account. The victims usually send me friend request on facebook which I accept.

Once, we start chatting, I will ask them if they are interested in working in Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) or any other blue chip companies. Immediately they get carried away at the mention of such offer.

“I usually ask the victim to pay N26,850 to my UBA account for application forms and processing fee. It was while I was attempting to defraud the fourth person that l was arrested. I was introduced into fraud by a former student of the polytechnic his name is Kelvin. He graduated last year.

“I found the profile of Tinubu on his phone when I used it to browse so I decided to become a fraud star. Now that I have been arrested, I feel so bad and I regret my action. I am really disappointed in myself. I want my mother to know that I loved her so much that I went into fraud to enable me take care of her medical expense and get better.

“One of the victims who led the police to the arrest of the suspect, Mr Gbenga Idowu Adeyemi told Daily Independent that his uncle, Rtd DIG Alhaji Rahmam Akao called “me that somebody created an account with the name senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu. He then asked me to send a friend request to that person, I did and he accepted.  After we became friends and started communicating regularly.

“ He sent me a message on facebook asking me if I was a graduate or undergraduate. I told him I was a graduate of accounting. He asked me if I would love to work with NNPC, I told him yes sir. He said he was going to introduce me to one Emmanuel, who operated the NNPC recruitment on his behalf. He then sent me Emmanuel’s phone number and asked me to call in respect of the NNPC recruitment”.

“I called Emmanuel who asked me to send him my e-mail address so that he can send me the recruitment form, which I did. Emmanuel also sent me an account number to pay in the sum of N26, 850 for the form and processing fee. He called me severally to know why there was a delay in the payment.

“He pressured me to make payment as there were few slots available. He said the only reason why he is assisting me was because I was coming through Senator Ahmed Tinubu. I told him that in order to play along with him, while I was trying to withdraw the said amount; my ATM card got stocked in the ATM that was the cause of the delay. Unknown to him that my Uncle the former DIG, had called the real Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu to inform him of the development.

“The shocked Tinubu asked us to take the case to the CP who called for immediate investigation by detectives of the SCIB. Recovered from the suspect include six sim cards of different net works, 13 empty sim cards packs, six photographs of a white man, one brown bottle containing some liquid substance and one I pad 3.