How undergraduate duped admission seekers millions of naira

The Lagos State Police Command has arrested an undergraduate of Ambrose Alli University, who cloned the website of Lagos State College of Health Technology (LSCHT) and duped several admission seekers of large sums of money. The suspect, Mayaki Best, 25, is a 300 level student of Library and Information Science at the university. He was arrested by operatives of Rapid Response Squad (RRS) on Wednesday in Auchi, Edo State.

Mayaki was tracked to Edo state following a petition signed by the Provost of LSCHT, Dr Moyo Kasim, on the fraudulent activities of one Dr. Odeh Philip Oteche, who cloned the website of the institution and requested for varied sums of money from admission applicants.

The petition, which was addressed to the Lagos State Commissioner of Police, and later referred to the commander, Rapid Response Squad, had cloned admission application and bank details stating that applicants paid N2,500 for admission form.

Mayaki, who was in possession of the phone line given in the fraudulent bank details, was arrested with three ATM cards, one of which carried Otache Philip Odeh, the owner of the fraudulent account.

In his confession to the police, Mayaki stated that he was the brain behind the cloning of the institution’s website and that he had withdrawn series of deposits made to the accounts by different applicants.

He added that he veered into admission racketeering when online customs auctioning of automobile and seized items failed to yield expected returns.

Apart from these, the suspect disclosed that he also used local and international dating platforms for scamming.

Through the cloned institution’s website, Mayaki stated that he had collected deposits ranging from N2,500 to N157,000, adding that one Charles and Ganiyu Balogun, now at large, were accomplices.

He stated that he opened Access Bank and UBA accounts with Sunday Abua for Nigerian Customs auction vehicles and goods. He disclosed that the three Facebook accounts of female customs officers he had been using and pictures of automobiles in display were sourced from Google.

Also found in his possession were different soft copies of unfilled custom papers.

Commenting, the Command PRO, ASP Olarinde FamousCole, stated that the command would not spare those who hide in other locations in the country and commit crime in Lagos.

He added that the suspect had been transferred to the SCID for further interrogation.