A 29-year-old suspected fraudster, Aminu Yerima, who posed as an aide to former Vice President Atiku Abubakar to defraud more than 50 people on Facebook, has revealed why he indulged in the criminal act.
Yerima, who claimed to have a Master’s degree from Ghana, made this known to newsmen after he was arrested by men of the Inspector General of Police Intelligence Response Team (IRT) after two of his female victims petitioned the IGP.
Yemi, a native of Jada local government area of Adamawa State like Atiku, said he was compelled to engage in crime after failing to get a job since graduating in 2014.
He revealed that he took to a life of crime after he was also duped on Facebook by someone who collected N30,000 from him under the guise of finding him a sugar mummy for sex but never did.
Yerima said, “I obtained my master’s degree from the University of Ghana, Accra, in 2014. In 2010, I got a bachelor’s degree from the Federal University Yola, Adamawa. I became a fraudster in 2016 after I could not secure a good job; also, I was equally duped by someone on Facebook. The fraudster told me that he could link me up with a sugar mummy who would be paying me for sex. The fraudster took N30,000 from me and blocked me from communicating with him on Facebook afterwards.
“After I was scammed, it occurred to me that I could do the same thing and make some money for myself since I had no job. I used the same sugar mummy tactics but it didn’t work. Since people didn’t believe me, I decided to create a new Facebook account using Manga Mubi as my profile name, then I uploaded several pictures of myself and former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar.”
Read Also: Oshiomhole Runs To Tinubu To Save Him
Revealing how he got access to Atiku, the alleged fraudster said, “He is from my local government area; also, Atiku is a very accessible and down-to-earth person. Whenever he is in town, he allows people into his house and they get to take pictures with him. I have taken several pictures with him over the years, including one during hajj. On the Facebook profile, I identified myself as his personal aide and that was how people started contacting me.
“A lot of them wanted to meet him while some others wanted contracts and financial assistance. Normally, I assured them that I could always facilitate a meeting between him and them, but it would come at a price. Then I would ask them to pay any amount above N500,000 and a lot of people paid huge amount of money to me.
“Whenever they insisted on seeing Atiku, I told them that he was out of the country and when they became troublesome, I blocked them from communicating with me on my Facebook account. I can’t remember the names of the people I have defrauded.”