Facebook user allegedly defrauds dozens posing as Atiku’s aide

A masters degree holder, Aminu Ahmed Yerima, has been arrested by operatives of the Inspector-General of Police (IGP) Special Intelligence Response Team (IRT) for allegedly defrauding over 50 persons on Facebook, posing as an aide to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar.

It was gathered that Yerima, a native of Jada Local Government Area of Adamawa State, the hometown of the former vice president, had defrauded his victims of large sums of money running into millions of naira. 

He was said to have run into troubled waters when two of his female victims wrote a petition against him to the Inspector-General of Police, Ibrahim Idris, giving a graphic detail of how he defrauded them of the sum of N5 million within six months.

Police sources disclosed that after the IGP approved the petitions, he directed his operatives at IRT, headed by Deputy Commissioner of Police, Abba Kyari, to investigate and bring the perpetrator to book.   

Yerima was said to have been traced through information he provided on his Facebook page in Kano State, where he was arrested.

Police sources explained that Yerima created a Facebook account using pictures of himself and the former Vice President in Mecca, Saudi Arabia and several other locations.

He also identified himself on his Facebook wall as the personal aide to Atiku. 

According to the suspect, he went into fraud because he had once been a victim of fraud. He said: “I obtained my Masters degree from the University of Ghana, Accra,in 2014, after my bachelors degree from the Federal University Yola, Adamawa State in 2010. I went into fraud in 2016, after I could not secure a good job and I was equally duped by someone on Facebook who wanted to link me up to a sugar mummy who would be paying me for sex. The fraudsters took N30,000 from me and blocked me from communicating with him on Facebook.

“Then I thought I could do it and make some money for myself since I had no job. I used the same Sugar Mummy format but it didn’t work. People weren’t falling for me, then I created a new Facebook account using Manga Mubi as my profile name, I uploaded several pictures of myself and Atiku. Atiku is very accessible and down-to-earth.

“Whenever he is in town, he allows people come around his house to snap pictures with him. I have snapped several pictures with him over the years including one during my Hajj pilgrimage. I also identified myself as his personal aide and people started contacting me. A lot of them wanted to meet him, some others wanted contracts and financial assistance. 

“Normally, I assure them that I could always facilitate a meeting, but it will come with a fee. I usually ask them to pay any amount from N500,000 upward and a lot of people paid several amount to me. When they insist on seeing him, I will tell them he is out of the country and when they start becoming troublesome I will block them from communicating with me. I can’t remember the names of the people I have defrauded”.