A 35-year-old father of three has
told operatives attached to the Operatives of the Rapid Response Squad (RRS),
Ikeja, Lagos State Police Command, how easy it was hoodwinked ladies via
Facebook into sending him nude pictures, which he later used to blackmail them.
The suspect, Michael Atanda,
described as an ex-convict, said that his hobby was to befriend ladies on
social media, pretend like he was interested in marrying them, and then get
their nude pictures. He said that after that, he would start threatening to
share the nude pictures on social media if they didn’t pay him.
The suspect was said to have been
jailed last year in a similar offence, after fraudulently collecting N700, 000,
00 from a lady he met on a dating site.
He was arrested on Thursday after he
started blackmailing four ladies. They reported him to the police.
Atanda, a Computer Science National
Diploma Holder, from a computer school in Ikeja, was arrested by the
surveillance team of the RRS after about a five-day manhunt.
Disclosing his modus operandi,
Atanda said: “My profile picture on my Facebook account shows that I’m based in
London. Whenever I come across ladies on the Facebook, I introduced myself as a
construction engineer, that I and my parents live in Europe. After sometime, I
would lure the ladies into sexual conversation and persuaded them to send their
nude pictures to me. After much persuasion they would send. I’ll send
them mine. Before sending their pictures, I would pretend as if I was seeking a
serious relationship with them, and promised them that I would be coming to
Abuja on a business trip and promised to see them some of
those residing in Abuja.”
Atanda further said: “Whenever I
wanted to call the girls, I always used software that changes my Nigeria line
into an international one. They would believe I was calling from London. After
they sent their nude pictures to me, I would come up with all manners of
stories and begin to demand. I have collected about N121, 000:00 from victims. I
have collected only N10, 000 from one Motunrayo, N6, 000 from Joy and N105, 000
from one Lizzy.”
The police said: “After collecting N121,
000, 00 from the four girls, he wanted to collect more money from them. He said
that if they refused to give him more money, he would leak their nude pictures
on the social media. The suspect, in other to defraud ladies on the social
media changed his name to Segun Bayo and claimed to be a graduate of Obafemi
Awolowo University Ile-Ife and went about adding several
ladies on the his Facebook account. Some of the victims, through phone call,
told the police that they had been paying the suspect not to leak their nude
photographs online.”
The Lagos State Police Public
Relations Officer (PPRO), Dolapo Badmos, said: “The suspect has been
transferred to the State Criminal Investigations Department, (SCID) Panti, Yaba,
for further investigation.”
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