Ayobami Ife, Abeokuta
Police have arrested four suspected internet scammers, popularly known as Yahoo Boys, for abducting their colleague over N26.43m proceeds of fraud business.
The suspects, Agbe Simeon ‘m’, Messiah Nicky ‘f’, Oladapo Dolapo ‘m’ and Yetunde Shonola ‘f’ were arrested at Orile imo village in Obafemi Owode local government area of Ogun state on Monday.
The quartet had abducted one of their colleague, Haruna Usman, since December 22, 2022 and kept him somewhere in Orile Imo but the Divisional Police Officer for Owode Egba division, Popoola Olasunkanmi, stormed the area with detectives following information that a victim of kidnappers was held hostage there.
The police arrested four of the abductors while two others escaped.
Police spokesman in the state, Abimbola Oyeyemi, confirming the development on Thursday, said that investigation had revealed that the victim and the suspects are members of same internet fraud syndicate, which had just recently swindled somebody of sum of twenty six million, four hundred and thirty seven thousand, nine hundred and fifty naira (N26,437,950).
Oyeyemi, a Superintendent of Police, said the abducted colleague only gave the sum of N2,200 to his colleagues, claiming that the money had not been paid completely by their client.
According to the police spokesman, the angry colleagues who felt shortchanged, lured him to an herbalist home at Orile Imo and held him hostage there since Thursday, 22nd of December 2022, with threat to kill him there if he refused to give them a fair share of the alleged proceed of fraud.
In the ensuing disagreement, the information leaked to the police who moved in, rescued the victim and apprehended four amongst the abductors, while others escaped.
The Commissioner of Police, Lanre Bankole, had directed that the suspects be transferred to Anti kidnapping unit of the State Criminal Investigation Departments for further investigation and possible prosecution.
