The Nigeria Police has cracked down a four-member notori­ous syndicate led by a renowned chief in Rivers State.
The gang specialised in impersonat­ing prominent Nigerians in the coun­try.
The four- man notorious syndicate which was being led by one High Chief Ovie Ogo ( Eze Ireoma of Omoku-Rivers state) was arrested in a hotel in Kaduna State.
While parading the suspects in Abuja, the Force Spokesman, Jimoh Moshood, disclosed that the IGP Intel­ligence Response Team (IRT) cracked and arrested the notorious suspects who posed as chief of staff to President, Senate President, National Security Adviser to President, Minister of pe­troleum, Minister of Finance, Minister of Transport, Chief Bola Tinubu, and many other prominent Nigerians.
He reiterated that in a coordinated operation in synergy with the Tech­nical Intelligence Unit (TIU) after a painstaking and sustained surveillance by IRT the suspects were arrested.
According to the Force Spokesman, High Chief Ovie Ogo (Eze Ireoma of Omoku-Rivers state) 47 year and native of Omoku Rivers State imper­sonates prominent citizens from the South-South and Southeast; Abdu­lazeez Eragbe, 40 years, who was born, brought up in Kaduna and speaks Hau­sa fluently impersonates prominent citizens from the North.
On the other hand, Babatunde Os­hamoto, 49 years impersonates promi­nent citizens from the South West and North Central while Samuel Idah, 25 years supplies the suspects with SIM cards registered with the names of the prominent Citizens.
“All the suspects confessed to the crime admitting to have impersonated several prominent citizens and made over N20, 000,000 from their criminal acts within the last 6 months before they were arrested,” Moshood said.
The Force Spokesman explained that “Chief Ovie Ogo further confessed that he posed as the National Security Ad­viser (NSA) and collected N13, 000,000 from a Ghanaian who wants to get an Oil block in Nigeria.
“The gang also posed as the Secretary to the Government of the Federation and collected N4, 000,000 from one man (names withheld), who is seeking for Federal appointment.
“They equally posed as Chief of Staff to the President and collected N2, 500,000 from another individual, who is looking for contract. The sus­pects again posed as the Chief of Staff to president and collected N700, 000 from one young man (names withheld), who is also seeking for federal appointment.
While advising the general public to be careful and verify the identity of whosoever they may wish to trans­act business or relate with, Moshood disclosed that iinvestigation is being intensified to arrest the other suspects who are currently at large while those arrested will be charged to court on completion of investigation.
Exhibits recovered from them, he said, included 14 assorted G.S.M sets, all with SIM cards registered with the names of top Government officials and other prominent Nigerians, several ex­tra registered SIM cards and a diary containing phone numbers of several top government officials and promi­nent persons in the country. - The Authority