Lagos State Commissioner of Police, Mr. Fatai Owoseni, yesterday said a 19-year-old girl, who, for long, had been posing as Music star, Ayodeji Ibrahim Balogun fondly called Wizkid, on social media, had been arrested.
The teenager, whose name the commissioner did not mention, was said to have duped many people, including students of the University of Lagos (UNILAG), before she was arrested. Among her victims were also two people living overseas. The money was over $53,000, equivalent of about N10.4 million.
One of the victims was defrauded of $49,000, while she milked the second victim of $12,000. According to Owoseni, the suspect, who is a student of one of the universities in the country, was arrested after Wizkid reported the case to the police command, complaining that someone was impersonating him and collecting money for shows. The suspect opened a Facebook account in Wizkid’s name and displayed the star’s picture.
She started chatting with friends on Facebook, pretending to be Wizkid. Owoseni said that under this guise, the lady had defrauded a lot of people. When people started accusing Wizkid of collecting money for shows and not turning up to fulfil his part of the bargain, he reported the matter to the commissioner.
Owoseni said the suspect was arrested through investigation.
He warned members of the public to be alert to the activities of fraudsters. He said: “A lady was arrested for defrauding people on Facebook. She was posing as Wizkid. She was arrested yesterday. The lady duped two people.
The two victims are outside Nigeria. Members of the public should be very careful on sending money to people they met online. The lady collected money from people in the United States and they thought they were paying money to Wizkid to come and perform.
They did not know they were dealing with fraudsters. Nigerians should warn friends and relatives overseas to be careful in sending money to anyone, especially someone they did not know or have not seen.”
