Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, (NSCDC), has arrested two siblings who are members of a cybercrime syndicate specialized in impersonating notable security personnel including officers of the NSCDC.
Parading the suspects yesterday in Abuja, Commandant of the Federal Capital Territory, (FCT), Command of the NSCDC, Olusola Odumosu, said the duo was nabbed following a seven-month manhunt after they created a Facebook page purportedly belonging to Commandant Olusola and defrauded members of the public.
The two brothers, Henry Ushie Odep, 34 years old, and Emanuel Ushie Odep, 23 years old, posing as Odumosu on the fake Facebook solicited funds and defrauded many.
Seven months ago, the FCT commandant made a public statement distancing himself from a fake Facebook account said to be his.
“This effort became necessary to distance myself from the said Facebook account so that unsuspecting Nigerians would not fall into the hands of the fraudsters.
“Upon this discovery, I gave a directive to the intelligence and investigation team and the Anti-Fraud unit to unravel the person(s) behind the fake Facebook account.
“Today, I am glad to inform you that the manhunt which began about 7 months ago, followed by a well coordinated covert operation by my men, with the assistance of our counterparts in Delta and Anambra State Command, finally paid off as we have in our custody the master minds behind the fraudulent Facebook account,” Olusola said as a media briefing in Abuja.
He said “They are Henry Ushie Odep, male, 34 years, Cross Rivers, and Emanuel Ushie Odep, male, 23 years.
“One of the suspects, Emmanuel Ushie was the first to be apprehended after being lured to Abuja, made a very useful confessional statement which led to the arrest of Henry Ushie Odep, his elder brother, who incidentally had the phone used to operate the fake Facebook account on him at the point of arrest in Asaba, Delta State.
Emmanuel has since confessed that his brother, Henry Ushie Odep is a yahoo boy and was the one that created the fake Facebook account bearing Olusola Odumosu immediately he was appointed as the FCT Commandant in August, 2023.
He admitted to being the one withdrawing monies sent to the Opay account by his brother Henry through POS machines until he was arrested by the officers of the FCT Command in Abuja.
On his part, Henry Ushie Odep informed that he started online fraud in 2016 and he is the one who lured his younger brother into the fraudulent act because he was disturbing him for (small small) funds.
He confessed to duping a lot of unsuspecting Nigerians of different sums of money under different guises in cyberspace.
He also disclosed that he is the same person behind the defrauding of so many people in 2016 through a fake Facebook account opened in the name of late Helen Amakiri, then an Assistant Commandant General o the agency.
This is one amongst many other accounts they have impersonated and duped people
Odumosu added that: “Investigation revealed that they operate Opay, moniepoint and Palmpay accounts to receive money from unsuspecting persons, but no bank account with traditional commercial banks.
They also used two accounts belonging to one Victory Chinagorom, who according to them never knew they were into cyber fraud.
According to Henry, his friend, Chibuike Okorie introduced him to cyber crime. The said Chibuike is currently in Kuwait as he has relocated from Nigeria.
The following people, Amadi Chisom (F) 31 years old and Mrs. Okafor Evelyn (F) 24 years whose names came up in the course of investigation and arrested alongside the principal suspect had been granted bail, pending when they would be required in the course of prosecution because findings revealed they had no knowledge of the crime committed by the two siblings.
Items recovered from the suspects include; Moniepoint POS machine, Opay POS machine, Tecno spark 10 phone, Tecno pop 8 phone and Infinix phone.
Commandant Odumosu said investigation is still on going, when it is concluded they will be prosecuted according to the extant laws.
