Three internet fraudsters who use charms to defraud their victims Chukwuemeka Ahunanya, Francis Ugochukwu and Emmanuel Chukwuma were arrested by the Cross River State Police on Friday.
This is in the wake of the arrest of another five yahoo-boys in Calabar.
Mr. Hafiz Inuwa, the Commissioner of Police in the state disclosed, during the parade of the suspects, that the three-man gang had admitted to belonging to a syndicate that was using charms to hypnotise potential victims.
“On February 23, 2018, at about 0940hours, the following suspects were arrested in the Akpabuyo Local Government Area on a tip-off. They are Chukwuemeka Ahunanya, Francis Ugochukwu, and Emmanuel Chukwuma.
“During interrogation, the suspects confessed to belonging to an Internet fraud group also known as yahoo boys. They used charms to defraud and dispossess unsuspecting members of the public of their hard-earned money and other valuables. Some charms were recovered from them during the search.”
An investigation is currently being undertaken to identify their victims.
Inuwa discussed another set of Internet fraudsters that had been arrested.
“We got a tip-off that five young men who specialise in Internet fraud were sighted along Itu Street, off Mary Slessor Avenue, in Calabar, ostensibly to commit a crime.
“The following five suspects were arrested by men of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad: Emmanuel Anthony, 33; Victor Eyo, 23; Joshua Archibong, 22; Michael Oyo, 23; and Edet Emmanuel, 20,” he said.
Inuwa disclosed that items recovered from the suspects were a pair of scissors, bottles of CSP Codeine, some mobile phones, ATM cards, Playstation 4 and ML 350 Mercedes-Benz SUV.
In a testament to Southern City News, Ahunanya a suspect who specialised in using charms, said the gang introduced the use of charms to defraud their victims two weeks ago.
Ahunanya, alleged he graduated from the Maritime Academy in Akwa Ibom State,
“We just introduced the use of charms into our business. Though we have not perfected it, we think it will work. We have seen others using it. We started it like two weeks ago. We get information that it works for others using it.”
Another suspect, Chukwuma, said, “We only started using the charms like two weeks ago and we have not seen its potency. We cannot tell if it will work because it has not worked for us. I am new in the Yahoo business.”
The Commissioner of Police said the suspects would be charged to court as soon as investigation was concluded.