The Lagos State Police Command has arrested a 19-year-old man as the brain behind the blackmail of popular Yoruba singer, Queen Salawa Abeni with nude photographs.
The suspect, Olufowoke Emmanuel, a resident of Brentfield Avenue, Peace Estate, Magboro, Ogun State, was picked up by the Decoy Team of Rapid Response Squad (RRS) last week Thursday after three days of monitoring him.
The Commissioner of Police, Mr. Hakeem Odumosu had in the wake of the attempt by a faceless individual to blackmail Alhaja Salawa Abeni sometime in April, directed the Commander, RRS, DCP Olatunji Disu to fish out the suspect.
After a technical diagnosis of the complaint, the decoy team narrowed down on the suspect a few days later.
You May Also Read
- Police Inspector arrested for killing passerby
- Man, 50 charged for raping his daughter for 8 years in Ikotun
- Woman murders of ex-lover’s 6-month-old baby over betrayal
- Police set up special strike force to fight social miscreants in Lagos
A senior police officer who spoke on the condition of anonymity as he was not supposed to speak with the press disclosed that the suspect couldn’t be picked because of the prevalence of COVID-19.
Emmanuel in his statement to the police confessed to having been the mastermind behind the ploy to publish some nude pictures of Waka Queen in exchange for money, adding that he was alone in the scheme.
The suspect, a 2017/2018 Electrical Engineering student of Yabatech, disclosed that he saw the nude pictures in a memory card which he picked up on the floor in Yabatech sometime in November 2019.
He added that after downloading the nude photographs of Salawa Abeni on his phone, he picked up her mobile number from her Instagram page.
“In April, I chatted her up and also called her after sending a few of the photos to her online. My intention was to negotiate with her for a few bucks and for me to destroy the photographs. I thought everything was going on fine until the following day when I heard the news of the blackmail over the radio. I was with my mother. She was even cursing the blackmailer unknown to her that I was the brain behind it.
“I immediately sneaked out, destroyed the memory card, and threw my mobile phone and SIM card into a nearby wetland in Magboro. Since then, I never mentioned it to anyone and called Madam Salawa Abeni about it again”,
he disclosed.
Commenting on the arrest, CP Hakeem Odumosu stated that no individual would be allowed to commit a crime in Lagos from any State or escape to other states in Nigeria to evade arrest.
He advised guardians to monitor their wards, emphasizing that the internet is a fertile ground for opportunities, but the State Command would not allow criminals to use it as an avenue to exploit law-abiding Lagosians.
