By Lovina Anthony The Akwa Ibom State Police Command said it has arrested four fake Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) ...
By Lovina Anthony
The Akwa Ibom State Police Command said it has arrested four
fake Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) officers who were planning
to abduct and collect a ransom of N150 million from their victim.
The Commissioner of Police, CP Waheed Ayilara said the
suspects include Emmanuel Augustine Akpayak, 27, Echem Ovurizichi Weneka, 27,
Promise Udofia, 28, and Jeremiah Johnson Okon, 38.
He said the principal suspect, Emmanuel Akpayak masterminded
the kidnap of the would-be-victim whom he owe over N12 million.
According to him, “Investigation revealed that Emmaneul
Augustine Akpayak had arranged for the kidnap and killing of the would-be
victim by engaging men on arms and procuring EFCC vest/uniform for the
Operation.
“Victim was invited and a search was conducted at the
principal suspect’s house where four pairs of EFCC vest were recovered.
“Information at hand indicates that the suspect transacted
business of selling cars with the would-be victim and owed the victim about
Twelve Million Naira (N12,000,000.00), inorder to evade the repayment of debt,
the suspect hired armed men to kidnap, extort the sum of One Hundred and Fifty
Million Naira (N150,000,000.00) and also kill the victim thereafter but the
Operation was foiled.”
In an interview, Akpayak claimed that the intending victim
was his bussiness associate whom he owe some money.
According to him, the victim hired “boys” that were issuing
threats to him.
He noted that attempts to make his associate to come to a
round table discussions failed hence he resorted to getting EFCC vest from an
online vendor and gave to his gang members who posed as officials of the
anti-graft agency to arrest the man and force him to bring N150 million as
ransom.
The commissioner also paraded suspected advance fee
fraudsters who have been swindling POS operators in Uyo metropolis and suburbs.
A statement issued by the Command said, “On 21/06/2024 at
about 7:00pm, one Glory Uko Okon ‘f’ of Afaha Ikot Obio Nkan Village, Ibesikpo
Asutan LGA, called in through the emergency hotline and alleged that one Donald
Ita Nyong ‘m’, Rex Clement Uso ‘m’ and one Kingsley Mathias Joekim POS
syndicates came to her POS stand at Udo Udoma Avenue Uyo, pretended to make
withdrawal of N10,000 and while she made the withdrawal to the suspects, one of
the suspect gave her N3,200 to deposit into an opay account which she tried
three times and the transaction was unsuccessful, the suspects mounted pressure
on her which made her to give out the POS machine to the suspect’s to type in
the account number and before she could realize.
“The suspects had withdrawn the sum of N320,000.00 from her
machine and quickly jumped into their waiting car and zoomed off. Suspects were
arrested, they all made useful statements and have confessed to the crime.”
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