Lagos airport Police Command, last week apprehended a suspect Abraham Akpojisheri, who had in his possession of 783 MTN SIM cards, he claimed he bought in South Africa.
He was apprehended by Aviation Security at the local wing of Murtala Muhammed International Airport, 2 Ikeja, Lagos State while billed to board a local flight to Asaba the same day.
Police Public Relations Officer of the command, CSP Daramola Kazeem, in a statement on Thursday, June 26 said the suspect confessed to being part of an international syndicate involved in identity theft and large-scale internet fraud.
According to Kazeem, investigation revealed that the suspect bought the sim cards from South Africa for the purpose of hacking CARD EAS of people’s accounts across the globe.
Further investigation revealed that he has scammed ten (10) victims from America alone out of tens of thousands of dollars.
“It was a synergy among inter agencies at work in the Airport when one Abraham Akpojisheri ‘m’ aged 29 of Villa, Abraka Delta state was arrested by eagle eye Aviation Security at the local wing of Murtala Muhammed International Airport, 2 Ikeja Lagos on June 24, 2025 and was promptly handed over to the airport police,” the statement read.
“The suspect who came into Nigeria through MMIA with TAG Angola airline on 24/06/25 with Seven Hundred and Eighty Three (783) MTN SIM cards allegedly brought in from South Africa where he travelled to sometimes in February, 2025, was billed to board local flight to Asaba same day from MM2.
“The Airport Commissioner of Police, CP Olufunke Adeayo Ogunbode mnips, PhD upon taking over the case directed a special unit savvy with technology wherewithal to unravel the motive behind the suspect action for having such number of SIM cards with him coming from abroad after the botched boarding of flight to Asaba by Aviation Security (AVSEC).
“During investigation and upon presentation of unassailable facts as unearthed with technology by the assemblage of the newly invigorated team, the suspect confessed to belong to a syndicate of Internet and identity theft fraudster who specializes in stealing people’s identities and pictures to create profiles online with intent to defraud their victims by impersonation.
“In his confessional statement, he stated that the 783 MTN SIM cards were bought in South Africa for the purpose of hacking CARD EAS of people’s account across the globe.
“It was discovered that he uses Facebook as his means of contact with his victims and has created about 7-8 different emails with different foreign names and numbers telling his victims to invest on forex trade and that he is a Forex trader.
“Findings revealed that he has scammed ten (10) victims from America alone raking in tens of thousands of dollars.
“He said he did all these with collaboration of one of his friends called Okiemute who is based in Ukraine and who also trained him how to scam and hack people’s accounts.
“Preliminary investigation has shown that he has criminal conspiracy cells in Ukraine, South Africa and Nigeria.
“The suspect is billed to be arraigned in court upon completion of investigation while effort is being intensified to arrest his accomplices.”
CP Ogunbode commending the team for rejecting bribe offered by the suspect to evade justice, assured that she will leave no stone unturned to see that no crime will be allowed to go unpunished .
She admonished youths to abstain from crime or better still stay away from airports nationwide to avoid been dealt with by applying full weight of law on them when caught.
