The two other suspects are final year students of the Federal University of Technology Akure (FUTA).
The suspects' modus oparadi, according to the unit, include using logos of multinational companies to place online advertisements for jobs and scholarships and demanding application fee from interested individuals.
Luck ran out for the suspects after the unit received a petition from the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) last August, that a website designed as 'OFID Scholarship Website' (OPEC Fund for International Development for World Student Aid Scholarship) with OFID name and logo is being used to defraud unsuspecting Nigerian applicants.
Explaining how they were arrested, spokesperson for the unit, Ngozi Isintume-Agu, a Deputy Superintendent of Police, said: "The petition dated August 22, 2013, said in the website, applicants were required to pay a fee of N2,500 and over 2,000 applicants responded through FirstBank account number 2020874607 and Access Bank account number 0056941009 with the name, OFID WSAS NG.
"The petitioner stated further that it was one of the victims that contacted OFID via facebook, accusing it of being an accomplice in the fraud.
"The Cybercrime Section of the unit swung into action and the mastermind of the fraud, one Falade Oluwapelumi Ayotunde, was arrested.
"His arrest led to the arrest of five other syndicate members. Police investigation so far revealed that over 2,000 applicants paid N2,500 each into the two bank accounts provided by the suspects and the principal suspect is the only signatory to both accounts.
"Twenty-five- year-old Falade Olowapelumi Ayotunde, a 500-level Estate Management student of the Federal University of Technology, Akure, FUTA, in his confessional statement to operatives of the unit, admitted to have designed the website of OFID WSAS in June, 2012.
"He, however, claimed that the idea was sold to him by Fajobi Olalekan and Bolatiri Opemipo. He also admitted in his statement that he opened an account in both banks with the name OFID WSAS NG for applicants to pay in their application fee which many responded to.
"The suspect who hails from Akure, Ondo state, further stated that he and his cohorts printed a postal for OFIDWAS which was on the website."
On his part, Asaolu Victor, 25, a graduate of Mining Engineering from FUTA, admitted to have assisted to paste the posters on-line.
According to Asaolu, who is from Ilesha, Osun State, he was tempted to assist because of unemployment. "Yes, I assisted to paste it on-line and at the end, I was given the sum of N80,000 and later they added N40,000, totalling N120,000 for the job."
Another suspect, Awote Temitope Emmanuel, 27, said: "I am a 500 level Estate Management student of FUTA. I assisted Ayotunde (principal suspect ) to guarantee the accounts he opened for the OFID programme and I was paid N70,000."
Asked if he was aware that the scholarship programme was fake, he nodded in affirmative.
Also on his part, 27-year-old Fajobi Olalekan, a first class Mechanical Engineering graduate of FUTA and the best graduating student in his department for 2012, told operatives that he only lent the alleged mastermind N12,000 to host the website.
According to him, "while in school, I lived in the same lodge with Ayotunde. He and his friends were always coming to me for educational assistance because of my intelligence. I once fell a victim of a scam scholarship known as EDIADS.
"Ayo approached me then and got some information regarding it which I believe gave him an idea on how to design his OFID Scholarship Website.
"I lent Ayotunde N12,000 which he used to host the website but he paid me N20,000 and informed me that the plan was successful."
Adebomi Oluwatosin, who is also a graduate of FUTA, said he only offered the alleged mastermind professional advice and also lent him N100,000 at the initial stage which was paid back with an additional N100,000.
Investigation, according to the Commissioner of Police in-charge of the unit, Umar Idris, was on-going, informing that the suspects would be charged to court soon.
He however, advised members of the public to verify the authenticity of any on-line advert before parting with their money, even as he called on the victims to visit the PSFU at Milverton Road, Ikoyi , Lagos in furtherance of the investigation.
Boluwaji, who hails from Ondo State, Southwest Nigeria, reportedly lied to the victim, 22-year old Busola Adebayo that she was possessed of a strange spirit that will cause her untimely death if she was not delivered.
He also told Busola that the bad dreams she always had will not allow her to get a husband and when she eventually gets married, she will not get pregnant and have children.
He told her the deliverance will start from her private part to other parts of her body.
Boluwaji then invited and locked her in his one room apartment at 7, Arounmalase street, Ijeshatedo, Lagos for 'prayer and deliverance'.
According to the victim, "he ordered me to remove my dress and pant and sit on a floor and spread my legs wide open while he was busy muttering and pretending he was praying.
"He brought out a white handkerchief and salt and first ordered me to pour it inside my private part and later joined me in doing so. He started fingering me, pretending that he was praying. He used the handkerchief and cleaned it and took it away."
On why she did not raise an alarm, Busola said she was overwhelmed by the prophecy he told her.
She was later rescued by the victim's friend who saw her when she entered the pastor's room and raised an alarm. This forced the pastor to open the door and by then she was still unclad.
The neigthbours descended on the pastor and battered him before the police at Ijeshatedo division rescued and took him to the station.
He was charged to a Magistrate's Court on a two-count charge of conduct likely to cause the breach of public peace contrary to Sections 166 and 348 of the Criminal Code Laws of Lagos State of Nigeria, 2011.
Part of the charge reads: "That you pastor Kehinde Boluwaji on the same date, time and place did conduct yourself in a manner likely to cause breach of public peace by asking the victim to use salt to wash her private part."
He pleaded not guilty.
The trial magistrate, D. T. Olatokun granted him bail in the sum of N50,000 with two sureties in like sum.
He was remanded in prison custody because nobody showed up to perfect his bail.
The matter was adjourned till 11 Febuary, 2012.
locked her in his one room apartment at 7, Arounmalase street, Ijeshatedo, Lagos for 'prayer and deliverance'.
According to the victim, "he ordered me to remove my dress and pant and sit on a floor and spread my legs wide open while he was busy muttering and pretending he was praying.
"He brought out a white handkerchief and salt and first ordered me to pour it inside my private part and later joined me in doing so. He started fingering me, pretending that he was praying. He used the handkerchief and cleaned it and took it away."
On why she did not raise an alarm, Busola said she was overwhelmed by the prophecy he told her.
She was later rescued by the victim's friend who saw her when she entered the pastor's room and raised an alarm. This forced the pastor to open the door and by then she was still unclad.
The neigthbours descended on the pastor and battered him before the police at Ijeshatedo division rescued and took him to the station.
He was charged to a Magistrate's Court on a two-count charge of conduct likely to cause the breach of public peace contrary to Sections 166 and 348 of the Criminal Code Laws of Lagos State of Nigeria, 2011.
Part of the charge reads: "That you pastor Kehinde Boluwaji on the same date, time and place did conduct yourself in a manner likely to cause breach of public peace by asking the victim to use salt to wash her private part."
He pleaded not guilty.
The trial magistrate, D. T. Olatokun granted him bail in the sum of N50,000 with two sureties in like sum.
He was remanded in prison custody because nobody showed up to perfect his bail.
The matter was adjouned till 11 Febuary, 2012.
PM NEWS
The statement titled, "Pull back Nigeria from the brink," is his reaction to the removal of Murtala Nyako as the Adamawa State governor and threat of impeachment against Governor Umaru Al-Makura of Nasarawa.
He warned that the development which was aimed at turning the country "into a one-party state" did not augur well for democracy.
Describing himself as " a close participant and witness to Nigeria's political history since independence in 1960," Buhari said, "Our country has gone through several rough patches, but never before have I seen a Nigerian President declare war on his own country as we are seeing now.
"Never before have I seen a Nigerian President deploy federal institutions in the service of partisanship as we are witnessing now. Never before have I seen a Nigerian President utilise the common wealth to subvert the system and punish the opposition, all in the name of politics.
"Our nation had suffered serious consequences in the past for egregious acts that are not even close to what we are seeing now. It is time to pull the brakes."
The Presidency is denying Jonathan's involvement in the development. But Buhari, who is one of the leaders of the APC, said in the statement that whether or not Jonathan is aware of the development, what mattered most is that it was happening under his administration and he and his party are the beneficiaries.
He lamented that the recourse to impeachment as a punitive measure against "out-of-favour" governors was an indication that Nigeria was gradually drifting into anarchy.
Gen Buhari disclosed in the statement that he had in his private capacity discussed the current situation with the President but regretted that nothing had been done to check it.
Buhari explained that he did so because, as a former Nigerian leader, history would never be kind to him if he sat back and watch things continue to go wrong.
"In my capacity as a former Head of State, rather than a politician, I have spoken to President Jonathan in private over these issues, but indications are that the strategy has not yielded positive fruits.
I cannot, just because I am an opposition politician, fail to do what is expected of me as a former Head of State to help rescue our nation in times of great trouble and palpable uncertainty. History will not be kind to me if I sit back while things turn bad, just so that no one will accuse me of partisanship.
"Yes, I am a politician. Yes, I am in the opposition. Yes, there is the tendency for my statement to be misconstrued as that of a politician rather than a statesman. But I owe it as a matter of duty and honour, and in the interest of our nation, to speak out on the dangerous trajectory that our nation is heading."
Adding, "The dangerous clouds are beginning to gather and the vultures are circling, and these have manifested in Nasarawa State where the ordinary people have defied guns and tanks to protest the plan to impeach Gov. Al-Makura in a repeat of the bitter medicine forced down the throat of Nyako.
"The people's protest in Nasarawa State is a sign of what to come if the federal authorities continue to target opposition governors for impeachment. In the long run, the impeachment weapon will be blunted. Positions will become more hardened on both sides and Nigeria and Nigerians will become the victims of arrested governance and possible anarchy."
Buhari warned Jonathan that a man in power must know he can't always do things because he could do them.
The duo vowed that the Presidency and the Peoples Democratic Party could not impeach them like they did to the former governor of Adamawa State, Alhaji Murtala Nyako.
APC National Chairman, John Odigie-Oyegun, at a press conference on Wednesday alleged that Jonathan and the PDP were out to remove the governors of Edo, Nasarawa, Osun, Borno and Rivers states.
But Oshiomhole warned Jonathan not to try such in his state as he was popularly elected by the overwhelming majority of Edo people. He said:
"The thought of impeachment does not cross our hearts. First, what would be the rationale? Secondly, the APC has majority in the Assembly. Thirdly, the governor is on ground. Fourthly, he is performing. We are not losing sleep over that because we have capacity for decency when it comes to real issues of political engagement."
He spoke through his Special Adviser on Media and Public Affairs, Mr. Kassim Afegbua, while accused the PDP of impunity, which he said was fast eroding democratic principles in the country.
He added, "If the PDP is now engaged in a gestapo manner with a gale of impeachment here and there, and with clear-cut abuses, it is the responsibility of the media to expose such dubiety and save our democracy from collapse."
In Rivers State, Amaechi and his followers said they were aware of the threat of impeachment in order to force the governor back to the PDP, but added that such threat would not work.
Describing the threat to make him return to the PDP as a dull dream and a wild goose chase, the governor, who spoke through his Chief of Staff, Chief Tony Okocha, explained that the formal move by 25 members of the state House of Assembly to the APC on Wednesday had foreclosed any thought of his (Amaechi) removal as the state governor.
He said, "It is a wild goose chase because no threat of impeachment from the Presidency will make the governor cave in. Twenty-five PDP Assembly members have all defected formerly to the APC, all in solidarity with the governor.
"We are aware of such threats of impeachment, but it is not working. The coffin has been nailed and there is nothing they (Presidency) can do about it," he added.
Amaechi, however, said he would not quit politics as a result of the threat to impeach him or force him to join the PDP, adding that his political future remains in the hands of God and the people of the state.
On the recent impeachment of Murtala Nyako as the governor of Adamawa State, Amaechi said though he was worried that his colleague was removed, the scenarios in Adamawa and Rivers states were different.
He said, "When the lawmakers were all in the PDP was even when we thought that impeachment would happen. Now, everybody in Rivers State has resolved that Governor Chibuike Amaechi will serve out his eight years.
"People are defecting enmasse to APC. So, they need to come and break our ranks here before they can achieve their plan. The threat to impeach Amaechi so that he will return to the PDP will not work; it is wishy-washy, it is a dull dream."
The Communities include, Aluu, Omagwa, Isiokpo, Elele and Apani among others. They made their remarks during the governor's "Meet the People tour" to rural communities in the Ikwerre Local Government Area on Wednesday.
An address by Mr. Garshion Benson on behalf of the Aluu Clan says: "We congratulate you for your forthrightness, vision and courage that have unarguably made you the 'face of true democracy' in Nigeria. The Aluu Clan has over 50,000 registered voters over the years to consistently deliver the highest vote to our course. Sir, the support and commitment of the Aluu Clan have been with you since you started your political carrier in the 80's and we believe Your Excellency recognizes this fact. We wish to commend you for the quality of work so far done on the Mrs. Matilda Nnodim road project; the surfacing from the Uniport axis is just nearing the first community on that route."
At Omagwa, the Chiefs and Elders also expressed appreciation to the governor for providing them with several dividends democracy.
In their address read by High Chief Bright Kpalukwu, they said: "Omagwa is among the numerous clans in Rivers State that has achieved democratic dividends. Your Excellency, Sir, Omagwa Clan has two Model Primary Schools within her confines. In sequence too, you have remembered Omagwa by making her a full beneficiary of an Ultra-Modern Health Care Centre. You have also given the town a face lift by awarding contracts for the building of roads. We are aware of the difficulties you are passing through in the State and the Nation at large. We are assuring you that, we have taken a positive stand to be with you come what may. Be assured that Omagwa people are solidly behind you. We shall not forget you in the days of reckoning."
The Omagwa council of Chiefs and Elders also awarded Governor Amaechi the Chieftaincy title of 'Ome-Kwa-eli of Omagwa'.
At Isiokpo, the headquarters of Ikwerre Local Government Area, the people described the governor's visit as home coming. "Your Excellency, your coming to Isiokpo is home coming, you have fought the good fight, and indeed, creditably well. We strongly appreciate your giant strides that can be measured to former Military Governor, King Alfred Diette-Spiff. We are proud of your developmental strides in the areas of Education, Health, Urban development, Model Primary and Secondary Schools, road networks, employment of Rivers
indigenes and other human capital development."
In Elele, the people said: "Since the assumption of office by Governor Amaechi, Isiokpo has been peaceful and devoid of rancour and acrimony, as the commercial nerve centre of the Ikwerre local government area. This administration has provided us with Model Primary Schools and Health Centres. Our illustrious sons and daughters have been appointed into positions of leadership. Your administration also constructed the Elele-Owerri road and
other internal roads for our communities. We are indeed grateful."
Apani Clan also expressed their gratitude and support to the governor. Speaking on behalf of the community, Hon. Azubuike Nwajoku, Lawmaker representing the Ikwerre constituency in the Rivers State House of Assembly said, "We are grateful to Governor Amaechi for the numerous developmental strides that have been attracted to Apani. We have three Model Primary Schools, Model Health Centres and Roads that have paved way for neighbouring communities to benefit from these facilities. We assure you of our continued support anytime
you need us."
Responding during the visit to Aluu clan, Governor Amaechi said his administration would build two model primary schools of 20 classroom blocks each to accommodate the rising population count in the community and urged them to declare their votes for the All Progressives Congress, APC.
He also emphasized his administration's commitment to construct and complete all internal roads as well as the on-going Model Primary School with ICT facilities.
"This is not time for politics, this is time for governance. When we start our political campaigns, we should be able to stand and say, this is our development for the Aluu community. When investors commence the building of industries at the Greater Port Harcourt City, job opportunities will be created and development will come for you to benefit more," Amaechi said.
At Omagwa, Amaechi promised to upgrade the Chieftaincy Stool of Eze Jacob Wagorchi Orji to be recognized, gazetted and pronounced as "His Royal Highness" (Nye-Nwe-Ali).
He promised to complete the Agwawirie Omagwa road, and build a Model Primary School for the community and also fund education projects in the area.
At Adanta Isiokpo, Governor Amaechi thanked the people of Isiokpo for supporting his administration and promised to complete the building of the Model Primary Schools, adding that the resurfacing of Isiokpo internal roads will be given priority.
Amaechi urged the people to actively participate in the upcoming voters registration exercise in August this year and obtain their permanent voters card for the 2015 elections and vote for the All Progressives Congress, APC.
In Elele community, the governor said: "I thank the people of Elele for the understanding during the construction of the Elele-Owerri road. I have done a lot in Elele. Elder Chidi Wihioka is one of the loyal politicians from Elele and his contributions and support has helped this government. He is a loyal son who has been following me since I assumed
office in 2007. My government has shown presence in Elele."
He promised to build more Model Primary Schools in the area, and provide a transformer to improve their power supply; same for Apani community where he also assured of the improved wellbeing of the rural dwellers.
PRESS UNIT, GOVERNMENT HOUSE
PORT HARCOURT. JULY 17, 2014
