The Adamawa State Police have arrested Paul John, a 500-level student of Modibbo Adama University, Yola, for allegedly creating fake social media accounts to extort money from unsuspecting members of the public.
Confirming the arrest to newsmen, the state Police Public Relations Officer, SP Suleiman Yahaya Nguroje, said the accused was alleged to have used the pictures of unsuspecting women without their consent on social media accounts he had created.
The accounts operated by the suspect include “Rose YarLele” “Procious Favourite”, “Wange Precious”, “Joy Dennis” among others.
According to Nguroje, the suspect who is a student, used the victims’ pictures as display photos on WhatsApp status updates, TikTok posts, and Facebook profiles with offensive captions such as “sexy lesbian” and “I am lesbian”.
According to him, police investigation revealed that the suspect collected nude pictures from some victims, which he used to threaten, demand and extort money and sexu@l favors.
Nguroje mentioned that the suspect also advertised some of the victims for hookup services, demanding money and tarnishing their reputations, while operating with different WhatsApp numbers.
He pointed out that the criminal activities caused serious emotional, financial, and reputational harm to several victims.
He said it was on the strength of that that the Command operatives attached to CP’s Monitoring Unit acted on a reliable and credible information which led to the arrest of the the suspect.
He said that the Commissioner of Police, lCP Dankombo Morris, had ordered a thorough investigation and directed that the suspect be charged to court upon conclusion of investigation.
He warned individuals engaging in extortion, cyberstalking, impersonation, and online harassment to desist forthwith as police will surely apprehend them.
