The police in Anambra State have arrested six suspected persons who allegedly specialise in hacking into peoples’ bank accounts .
The suspects are Uche Louis from Mbieri, Imo State; Junior Abamu from Uromi, Edo State; Chinemelem Anugwam from Mbano, Imo State; Agaro Afo from Ideze, Delta State and Abraham Patrick from Obubra, Cross River State.
In a statement issued by the Anambra State Police Command, the command’s spokesman, SP Haruna Mohammed, on Wednesday said that on March 23 at about 4:50pm, following intelligence report, police operatives attached to B’ Division, Awka arrested the suspects at UNIZIK temporary site, Awka.
According to him, the suspects are members of a notorious syndicate that specializes in stealing phones from unsuspecting passengers in commercial vehicles and using the handsets to hack into bank accounts of their victims and siphon their money.
Mohammed said their arrest was sequel to an earlier arrest of a syndicate member; one Nkem Emmanuel from Agbor-Obi in Agbor, Delta, at Aroma junction Awka, with a phone which he stole from his co-passenger, one Okafor Ebere, while traveling in a commercial tricycle.
The command’s spokesman said that some exhibits recovered from the suspects include: 23 assorted cell phones, 13 memory cards, dried leave suspected to be Indian hemp, Codeine Syrup, assorted drugs and cash sum of N102,000.
He also stated that some victims of the suspects have been contacted to come forward to identify both suspects and their property. Among the victims, who came, was one Ohaka Uchechi, whose Infinix Hot-8 phone was stolen on March 16 by the principal suspect, Nkem, inside a commercial tricycle at UNIZIK temporary site.
According to the police spokesman, the victim turned away his face when his (co-passenger) coughed repeatedly in his direction as a means to distract him and stole his phone, which he eventually used to siphon the sum of N851,000 from the victim’s bank accounts.
He added that all the suspects have made voluntary confessional statements and would be charged to court upon conclusion of investigation.
He also said that the State Commissioner of Police, John Abang, has appealed to members of the public, whose handsets or other valuables were stolen through similar way to report at B’ Division Awka for possible identification and claim their property.
