Police detectives from Zone 7 Police Command Headquarters, Abuja, have arrested a 26 – year old Emeka Marcel Nweke for allegedly creating a Facebook page with the name of the Executive Secretary of Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFUND), Architect Sony Echono, to defraud unsuspecting members of the public.
The Assistant Inspector General (AIG) of Police, Benneth Igweh, who confirmed the arrest of the suspect to newsmen in Abuja on Tuesday, said the suspect, a secondary school dropout, was a member of a 21-man gang allegedly engaging cyber fraud.
Igweh added that the suspect was tracked and arrested in Awada, Anambra State by police detectives.
He said, “The suspect has a Zenith, Access, Opay, GTB, Fairmoney Microfinance, FCMB and Fidelity bank accounts. In his GTBank account alone, his transactions for the month of August 2024, alone were over N10,000,000.”
He explained that the Zone 7 police command acted on a petition from the Executive Secretary of TETFUND, Arch. Sony S. T. Echono, against Emeka Marcel Nweke, Innocent Eze, Mrs Nenrot L, Dogara Bulus, Victor Okpanachi, John Kent, and 14 other suspects over alleged criminal conspiracy bordering on impersonation, fraud, false representation, cyberstalking obtaining money false pretence and threat to life.
According to the AIG, Zone 7, the detectives scrutinized the suspects’ Facebook page where chats with some of the victims were tracked; the phone number used, and also a bank account number which was seen in the chats with which they requested money.
Giving details of how the gang carried out the alleged crimes, he said the suspects presented themselves as staff of TETFUND and lured unsuspecting people with fake advertisements of supplies to schools and other institutions.
According to him, prospective suppliers were asked to supply goods, which they criminally diverted using fake addresses and locations.
“They also ask companies and organizations to donate monies to assist the efforts of the government to procure materials for supply to schools for developmental purposes without the knowledge of the executive secretary of TETFUND, thereby causing false representation, cyberstalking and character assassination,” he said.
The police AIG said the suspect would be charged to court after investigation, adding that efforts are on to track and arrest other members of the gang.
He called on members of the public to be wary of online social media fraudsters.
