Juliana Francis
In May 2018, a 28-year-old medical doctor, Michael Thompson Williams, was arrested for using a fake bank alert to buy a Porsche car worth N28 million. After his arrest, Williams told journalists that most Nigerian banks were unsafe and could be hacked in seconds.
He was arrested by operatives of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS), Ikeja, Lagos State Command under the watch of the then Commissioner of Police, Mr. Imohimi Edgal.
When Edgal presented Williams to journalists, the suspect was allowed to cover his face with a cloth. The then commissioner cited fundamental human rights of the suspect. It was not clear if the doctor was charged to court after the parade. But Williams was arrested again this year for fraud.
His re-arrest has raised a lot of questions – was he ever charged to court? If he was, what transpired in court? Williams was re-arrested by policemen attached to Area J Police Command and after investigations, the policemen reasoned that his crime was more under the jurisdiction of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and promptly handed him over.
Today, his name has changed from Dr. Michael Thompson Williams to Williams Michael Ogwezi aka Dr. Williams. The EFCC said the suspect had been parading himself as an official of the commission to defraud his unsuspecting victims.
The EFCC spokesman, Wilson Uwujaren, said: “The suspect, a member of a syndicate that specialises in forging identity cards of the commission as well as those of other law enforcement agencies, was arrested in Lagos, following a report received by the commission from the Nigeria Police Area Command, Ajah, Lagos. “Investigation revealed that the suspect had defrauded one of his victims, a lady, of jewellery valued at N10,000,000 before his arrest.
“The suspect, in his statement to the commission, confessed to have been involved in the alleged crime. Items recovered from him at the point of arrest include an identity card with inscription of EFCC, EFCC face masks, three laptops, three mobile phones and two vehicles, Lexus and Hyundai Genesis.” He will soon be charged to court.”
After his arrest in 2018, Williams claimed to have worked with frontline hospitals in Lagos and used to hack into customers’ accounts with banks and financial institutions. He also monitored private email messages of prominent Nigerians.
The suspect said through his hacking expertise, he had acquired a property in Canada and boasted that he could buy goods worth N40 million with credit cards and make false payments in tranches to unsuspecting victims.
He was arrested on March 23, 2018, after a car dealer, Abidogun Adewale, lodged a complaint with the police.
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