The Force headquarters on Friday paraded suspects linked to the operation of fake websites of the West African Examination Council, WAEC, swindling unsuspecting candidates of their monies.
A statement by the Force’s public relation officer, Jimoh Moshood, said the suspects were found to be asking the candidates to “pay money into their bank accounts, in exchange for the provision of worked solutions/answers to questions of subjects being taken on any particular day as the examination was in progress.”
Mr Moshood said the police had received a tip from the authorities of WAEC, alleging that some fraudsters were operating illegal websites under different names soliciting for candidates in the February/May 2017 West African Examination Council, WAEC.
The payments were being made into a bank account “in exchange for posting of worked solutions and answers via whatsapp at about 20 or 30 minutes into the commencement of each paper and in the process fraudulently and dubiously dispossessed their unsuspecting victims of their hard-earned money.
“Against this background, personnel of the Inspector General of Police Monitoring Unit swung into action, after painstaking and meticulous investigation that spanned several weeks arrested the following suspects: Chijoke Onwuachu Modestus ‘M’, a 300 level student of Computer Science Micheal Okpara University, Umudike was arrested at Umuiahia and confessed to have collected ₦400 per paper from numerous candidates, to the tune of seventy thousand naira (N70,000).
“Samuel Odinaka Onwurah age 20 years old ‘M’ was arrested at Kutunku extension layout in Gwagwalada, Abuja and has collected the sum of ninety thousand naira (N90,000) from various victims.
‘Patrick Uchechukwu Nwodo ‘M’ 30 years old was trailed and picked up at Abakpa, Nike in Enugu. He has also collected the sum of forty thousand naira (N40,000) from unsuspecting victims.
“Okon Effiong Joseph ‘M’ who is 20 years old 200 level student of Public Health Department University of Calabar, he was arrested at Calabar. He has collected the sum of one hundred and twenty thousand naira (N120,000) from different candidates.”
Mr Moshood said the suspects would be charged to court on completion of investigation, as effort is being intensified to arrest other operators of these illegal/rogue websites still at large.
