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By Ngozi Uwujare
The Rivers State Police Command has arrested two suspects – Amadi Hemenachi, 28, and Goodluck Nnachiri, 27. The two were arrested for allegedly impersonating the Rivers State Commissioner of Police, Mr Okon Effiong .
The two suspects, it was gathered, used Effiong’s photograph to create a fake Facebook account with the image. They were also, allegedly, defrauding unsuspecting members of the public, including job and admission-seekers.
The Rivers State Commissioner of Police, Mr Okon Effiong told Saturday Sun that the police operatives swung into action and tracked the two suspects. The operatives subsequently got the two suspects arrested on February 20, 2023 in their hideout in Port Harcourt, Rivers State.
He said the suspects were involved in a case of conspiracy, impersonation, forgery, obtaining money by false pretence, and unlawful possession of multiple ATM cards taken from unsuspecting citizens, mostly job and admission seekers.
According to the police, the suspects are alleged to have hacked into the Google network and uploaded the photograph of Mr Effiong and used some to create a fake Facebook account.
It was gathered that they usually hack into different websites, print out names of people, their phone numbers and addresses, and then call to defraud them.
The two suspects are from Akukabi and Obibi villages in Etche Local Government Areas of Rivers State.
One of the suspects, Amadi Hemenachi told Saturday Sun that he hails from Akukabi Village in Etche Local Government Area of Rivers State.
“We are up to five members of a syndicate that started this Facebook fraud, defrauding innocent people since 2020 when we have been hacking into people’s bank accounts through their ATM cards. We monitor people’s accounts because we have information from an insider in the bank who assisted us on how to defraud them through Facebook by chatting them and hacking into their accounts. We also posed on Facebook as ones who can assist people looking for jobs, and we used the avenue to dupe them because they were desperately looking for jobs.
“Also, we have been monitoring the Rivers State Commissioner of Police, Mr Okon Effiong since he arrived in Rivers State. We wanted to hack his bank account but we didn’t succeed with it. We have to impersonate the Commissioner of Police to defraud other victims on Facebook and in the process we were caught by the police operatives.
“Most of our operations are in the night when we disguise as high personalities in the society. We also dupe people from their phones by hacking into their websites and withdrawing millions of naira from their accounts.”
The other suspect, Goodluck Nnachiri said: “I hail from Obibi Village in Etche Local Government Area of Rivers State. I have learnt my lesson in a hard way. It was greed that prompted me to join the gang to defraud victims on Facebook and websites. Once we collected millions of naira from victims, we would squander the whole money in the hotel where we enjoyed ourselves. We never thought policemen would arrest us. I thought I would continue to do illegal business. I want the Commissioner of Police, Mr Okon Effiong to forgive us. We have turned a new leaf.”
CP Effiong said the suspects would soon be charged to court.
