Three Nigerians and a Ghanaian have been arrested by the Cyber Crime Unit of the Police Criminal Investigations Department for allegedly using the name of the Ghanaian Inspector General of Police, John Kudalor, to defraud some police officers seeking to serve under the United Nations and African Union Missions.
The suspects, according to police reports, had opened a face book account using the name of John Kudalor through which their victims were contacted and a bank account into which monies were paid.
The suspects are Timothy Egwu, 23-year-old private security guard; an actor, Matthew Ushie, aka Lampard, 24; 23-year-old footballer, Samuel Iwochukwu aka Kaselas, and the Ghanaian, Haruna Danladi, 23, who works with a security company in East Legon in Accra.
According to reports, two police officers had already fallen victim to their fraudulent activity, having paid GH¢300.00 into the said account.
Briefing the media, the Director in charge of Cyber Crime Unit, Chief Superintendent Herbert Gustav Yankson, said on July 14, 2016, the unit detected a Facebook account created in the name of the Inspector General of Police, John Kudalor.
He said the holder of the said account was asking police officers to pay various sums of money into a bank account number 0241623119341 to enable him to facilitate their appointment to the United Nations and African Union Missions.
On July 15, 2016, Haruna Danladi was arrested following a tip-off.
He led the police to arrest Egwu, Ushie and Iwochukwu as his accomplices, at their various hideouts.
According to Yankson, further investigations revealed that Iwochukwu and Ushie conspired and created the Facebook account in the name of the Ghanaian IGP.
The two further used the IGP’s picture in uniform as the profile picture and contacted Egwu and Danladi to provide the bank account number for monies to be paid into it.
The said account attracted a total of about 497 friends, mostly police officers.
The suspects are in custody and assisting the police with investigation.
Yankson cautioned the public to be cautious when dealing with such persons since UN peace keeping appointments are not done on social media.
