Oluseye Ojo, Ibadan
Luck ran out for a suspected internet fraudster on Tuesday in Ibadan as operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Ibadan zonal office botched his attempt to flush his phone through a water closet in order to deny access to potentially incriminating data about him.
The suspect, whose name was given as Fisayo Falade, 20, reportedly rushed to the toilet when he got information that operatives of the anti-graft agency were in the premises of the house he was arrested.
He was said to have dropped the phone in the water closet and flushed it the way he used to do for his faeces, but the phone refused to go into the pipe that would have channeled it into the septic tank. As gathered, he flushed the phones many times, and it refused to leave the water closet.
The EFCC operatives reportedly trailed him to the restroom, where he was arrested and the phone, which he has allegedly been using to defraud unsuspecting people, was recovered and taken as an exhibit against him.
Falade was among the 15 young men arrested in Ibadan on Tuesday for internet-related crimes when the commission’s operatives conducted a raid on two locations in the city.
Ten of the suspects were arrested at Akatanpa Powerline, while the other five were nabbed at Kushenla area of the Oyo State capital.
The suspects, whose ages range between 20 and 28 years, were allegedly hidden behind fake names and identities to perpetrate the purported fraud, dispossessing their unsuspecting victims of their hard-earned money.
The suspects were reported to EFCC by some members of their neighborhood, who noticed their expensive ways of life, though they were said to be undergraduates, and without any known source of income.
According to EFCC, “items recovered from them include two exotic cars, laptops, mobile phones and several documents containing false pretences. The suspects will be charged to court as soon as investigations are concluded.”
