The Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Command of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) has arrested two siblings for impersonating its Commandant, Mr. Olusola Odumosu, by operating a fake Facebook account in his name, thereby defrauding innocent Nigerians of their hard earned monies.
The siblings, who were paraded at the command’s headquarters in Abuja on Tuesday, are Henry Ushie Odep, male, 34-year-old, a graduate of Statistics from Anambra State University and Emanuel Ushie Odep, male, 23-year-old, both from Cross Rivers State.
While parading the suspects, Commandant Odumosu explained that: “The duo used a fake Facebook account and fraudulently operated OPAy and Moniepoint accounts which they used in defrauding their victims under the pretext of getting them job or be promoted.”
He revealed that sometime in September, 2023, his office alerted the public of the existence of a fake Facebook account opened by criminals in his name.
He said upon the discovery, he gave directive to the intelligence and investigation team and the Anti-Fraud Unit of NSCDC to unravel the person(s) behind the fake Facebook account.
Odumosu announced that seven months after, following a well-coordinated covert operation by his men, and the assistance of his counterparts in Delta and Anambra State Commands, their manhunt paid off as they now have the masterminds of the fraudulent Facebook account in custody.
According to him, “One of the suspects, Emmanuel Ushie was the first to be apprehended after being lured to Abuja. He 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 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 of NSCDC in August, 2023.
According to Odumosu, Emmanuel also 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 NSCDC officers of the FCT Command in Abuja.
On his part, Henry Ushie Odep confessed that he started online fraud in 2016 and admitted to luring his younger brother (Emmanuel Ushie) into the fraudulent act because he was disturbing him for funds. He confessed to duping a lot of unsuspecting Nigerians of different sums of money under different guises through the cyberspace.
He also disclosed that he is the same person behind the defrauding of so many people through a fake Facebook account opened in the name of late Assistant Commandant of the Corps (ACH) Helen Amakiri, eight years ago (2016) who was an assistant Commandant-general then.
Odumosu further revealed that further investigation showed that the suspects operated Opay, Moniepoint and Palmpay accounts to receive money from their victims but had 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 cybercrime. The said Chibuike is currently in Kuwait as he has relocated from Nigeria.
He added two other suspects – Amadi Chisom (F) 31-year-old and Mrs. Okafor Evelyn (F) 24-year-old – whose names came up in the course of investigation and arrested alongside the principal suspects had been granted bail, pending when they would be required in the course of prosecution.
This, he explained, was because findings revealed they had no knowledge of the crime committed by the duo of Emmanuel Ushie and Henry Ushie.
Exhibits recovered from the suspects, he said, included Moniepoint PoS machine, Opay PoS machine, one Tecno Spark 10 phone, Tecno POP 8 as well as an Infinix phone.
According to Odumosu, all the suspects will be charged to court at the conclusion of investigations and would be prosecuted according to the extant laws.
The FCT Commandant warned all cyber criminals to find legitimate trade to do, adding that his eagle-eyed officers and men of NSCDC were everywhere.
“You can only run, you can’t hide. This arrest should serve as a deterrence to others in this illicit business that crime doesn’t pay. The NSCDC FCT Command, in collaboration with other security agencies will continue to launch its dragnet into fighting any form of criminality that’ll contravene peace, security and any other government’s interest for the people,” he stated.
Recall that LEADERSHIP investigation had also revealed in June 2020 that the suspects were arrested and paraded by the operatives of the Nigeria Police Force for running a fake Foundation account in the name of the Force Public Relations officer (FPRO) at the time, Frank Mba with FCMB.
Our investigations further revealed that that the Henry Ushie, who is notorious for commiting cyber crimes had also been arrested in 2017 by the IRT for impersonating the then ACP Abba Kyari, the Commander IRT on Facebook and defrauding many innocent Nigerians before he was arrested and subsequently charged to Court for impersonation. He eventually got bail from the court and went back to same crime.
