Operatives of the Uyo Zonal Office of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, have arrested four internet fraudsters in Calabar, Cross River State, following two seperate raids carried out in the early hours of Saturday, May 4, 2019 and Sunday, May 5, 2019.

The Saturday morning operation led to the arrest of a known “yahoo” kingpin, Akpojivi Joel Onoriode, a 29-year-old graduate of Delta State University, Abraka who is married with two kids.

Onoriode was arrested in his lavishly furnished duplex located at Plot 10, Block VI, Unical Satellite Town, Calabar, which he confessed was purchased with proceeds from his illicit “yahoo” business. He confessed that he had been in the “yahoo-yahoo” business for a long time and was known as “Blinks” or “Mr White”. He admitted that he has been in the “yahoo” business for a very long time and currently operates an offshore account in China.

He said: “I was really known in my school then as a yahoo boy. I have two kids. I didn’t want to bring them up where people will say, ah! your father is a yahoo boy. That was why I relocated my family from Asaba to Calabar.

“When I came out now and saw you people and the bus outside, my mind just told me there was a problem.”

While conducting a search on the premises, three luxury cars were recovered from him – ZDX Acura car, E 300 Mercedes Benz and a Range Rover SUV. The Range Rover could, however, not be moved out of the premises with other exhibits due to mechanical problems. Other items recovered include, two iPhones, one Nokia phone, and documents of landed properties owned by the suspect.

The morning raid on May 5, 2019 led to the arrest of Ifeanyi Chukwudi, Godwin Joseph and Iluobe Daniel. They were picked up at different locations within Calabar, following intelligence reports gathered by operatives of the Commission, as a result of the high rate of cybercrime in the town.

Chukwudi confessed that he specialized in love scam, admitting that he had “made a lot of money from the business (yahoo-yahoo)”.

He said: “I have defrauded women from the UK (United Kingdom). They usually pay me after we get engaged, and then, they will now want me to come over, that’s when they send me money and that’s how I get paid.”

Some of the items recovered from his apartment at Effiong Close, Satellite Town, Calabar include: one iPhone 8 Plus, one HP laptop containing fraudulent letters of false claims, and nine SIM cards.

Joseph and Daniel were arrested at Itagbor Agbeansa area of Calabar. A Toyota Camry LE, one HP laptop containing scam emails and several exotic phones were recovered from them.

They will soon be charged to court.

The Plateau state police command have recovered the corpse of a student of the University of Jos (UNIJOS), Mercy Naan, who was declared missing on May 3rd.

A statement released by the command’s spokesperson, Terna Tyopev, says Naan who is 2nd year student of the department of Marketing, was declared missing by her parents on Friday May 3rd after no one could reach her. Her parents alerted the school security who then alerted the police.

The statement in part reads;

“The body was recovered on Sunday, May 5, after we received information of an unbearable odour from room 23 in Zion Hostel of the University. Yesterday, at about 3:30 p.m, our Angwan Rogo Division received a distress call from the the school’s security department, that on the same date, at about 3 p.m., some students raised an alarm over an unusual odour from room number 23, Zion Hostel, in Naraguta area of the school.

“Immediately we received the report, a combined team comprising of the Police, the University security and Medical personnel mobilised to the scene.

“On arrival, we forced the hostel door open and the motionless body of one Mercy Naan, a 23-year-old 200 level student of the Department of Marketing, was seen and recovered.” he said

Tyopev added that the victim was confirmed dead at University Clinic and her corpse had been deposited at UNIJOS’ mortuary for autopsy. He added that detectives had begun investigation on the incident, and asked the public to help with relevant information.

Three brothers are now in police net in Niger state for killing a man for ritual purposes in the Borgu Local Government Area of the state.

Security operatives reportedly swooped in on the suspects, Saminu Usman,25; Yusuf Usman,22; and Muhammadu Usman, 35, after a complaint by the father of their victim, Yakubu Garba.

Herald Nigeria gathered that the victim, one Shehu Garba, was kidnapped by the three brothers and taken to an unknown location where they planned to kill him for rituals.

It got to the peak on Sunday when the suspects took their victim to a bush where they killed him and cut off one of his hands.

One of the suspects, Saminu, alleged that his eldest brother, Mohammadu, instructed them to cut off their victim’s hand for the ritual to enable them to be rich.

He stated, “It was actually not our intention to kill our victim for rituals. But after killing him, we cut off his hand, which we planned to use for ritual, before we were arrested by the police.

“I don’t know what to say; but we have disappointed our parents and other family members. Imagine three brothers going to jail at the same time; we have ruined our lives.”

Confirming the incident, the command Public Relations Officer, Muhammad Abubakar, said the suspects had confessed to the crime, and that the matter had been charged to court.