Police arrest 27-year-old man for extorting N3.5m from 50 job seekers

Officials of the Cross River State Police Command, on Monday, confirmed the arrest of one Okon Ntiedo, 27, for allegedly duping 50 unemployed persons of about N3.5 million.

Ntiedo was said to have told the unsuspecting victims, who hailed from Akwa Ibom and Cross River states, that he was an informant for the Directorate of State Security (DSS) and conned them into believing that he could secure federal appointments for them.

Hogan Bassey, the command’s spokesperson who confirmed the incident, told journalists that the suspect is in custody.

“The information is correct and there is no attempt to release him from detention because investigations are continuing,” he said. “The suspect is not on the staff of the DSS, we have confirmed that. His so called residential address is still in doubt.”

Bassey said that Ntiedo, who was arrested on October 24 in a drinking bar at Afokang, Calabar South, was being detained at Mbukpa Police Station.

According to him, the suspect promised to secure jobs for the victims in the Nigeria Customs Service, Nigeria Immigration Service, National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, Nigeria Prisons Service and other federal agencies.

The spokesman said the suspect collected between N100,000 and N250,000 from the victims under the pretext that the money would enable him to process their forms and lobby officials.

Ntiedo confirmed to journalists that he collected various sums as deposit from the victims.

He said the total money he collected was N2 million and not N3.5 million as the police claimed.

The suspect revealed that he was working in collaboration with a medical officer in the Nigeria Air Force in Kaduna and a personal assistant in the ministry of Interior.

Ntiedo said he was willing to refund the money to the victims but that his accomplices would have to bring what he had transferred to them through their accounts.