Ex-convict poses as NNPC finance director on Facebook
Police in Ogun State have arrested a former convict, Surajudeen Balogun, for allegedly impersonating a director in the state Ministry of Finance on a social media platform, Facebook. The 46-year-old Balogun was also accused of attempting to swindle a female police officer on the same Facebook. The state Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), Abimbola Oyeyemi, confirmed the arrest of the suspect in a statement made available to journalists in Abeokuta.
Oyeyemi explained that Balogun, a fashion designer from Ijebu-Ode area of the state, posed on Facebook as an official of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) with the picture of the said finance director through which he had been defrauding unsuspecting members of the public. The PPRO said Balogun had earlier been arrested for similar offence when he duped a woman, Bimpe Akinmade, of N950,000 having claimed to be an NNPC official based in Port Harcourt, Rivers State. Balogun had allegedly asked the woman to lend him the said amount to secure the release of his brother who was reportedly detained at Ibara Prison with the promise to refund her whenever he returned to Abeokuta. Oyeyemi said:
“He (the suspect) came to meet the victim under the pretence of running an errand for the Port Harcourt-based man, collected the money and blocked the woman on his Facebook page. “He was later traced and arrested by the police, charged to court and sentenced to prison.
“As soon as he came out of prison, he started his nefarious activities again. Luck ran out on him when he was trying to defraud another woman on Facebook under the same guise unknown to him that the woman is a police officer. “The officer played along with him until Saturday, February 17 when he was arrested while trying to collect money from the woman.” Oyeyemi disclosed that the suspect owned up to committing the crime on interrogation. “He informed the police that he downloaded the picture of the finance director and used it as his DP (display picture) in order to deceive his victims,” the PPRO said.
