End of the Road for Cyberstalking Gang
The spokesperson of the Nigeria Police Force, ACP Olumuyiwa Adejobi, in a press statement said three suspects namely Adebukola Kolapo Nnedum Micheal Somtomchukwu and Isaac Akpokighe, all male of ages 27, 25 and 30 respectively are members of a syndicate called Gistlover family, responsible for the daily running of the Gistlover blog, a microblogging platform known for “Cyberstalking, incitement, Blackmail, and sundry, which has over the years been a course for public outcry.
The Nigeria police Force National Cybercrime center, acting on a petition at the instance of Hon and Doctor Mrs Seye Oladejo arrested three men in connection with a case of Conspiracy, Cyberstalking, and threat to life.
According to the statement ” upon arrest the suspects revealed their various degrees of involvement in the conspiracy, corroborating the already available overwhelming evidences. The first suspect Adebukola Kolapo a.k.a Omo oba Gistlover was responsible for the creation of over 80 percent of the Gistlover pages thereby lending his digital footprint for the perpetration of the aforementioned criminal act. Being on the pay roll of the said platform and having enjoyed incentives like car gifts and monies, Adebukola was saddled with the responsibility of scouting, editing and captioning contents including the cyber stalking post made against the complainant, Hon. and Dr. Mrs Oluseyi Oladejo. Adebukola has also contributed in laundering monies gotten from the illegal scheme through various means.
Further, digital Forensic analysis led to the recovery of eight (8) gist lover pages created on the instruction of the head of the syndicate by Adebukola, and wallet addresses used in laundering these monies.
It would be recalled that recently one of this magazine’ s Reporter was called in early August, 2023 by an unknown caller who claimed to run an online philanthropic programme called share love. He asked the Reporter if he had ever showed love to anyone before and the Reporter said yes. The self acclaimed share love programme operator asked the Reporter to send N20,000 to some who is suffering from fire burn to test his ability to show love and in return he will bless him financially in line with the philosophy of the online programme He then sent the below account details
PRINCE STANLEY NWOKE
ACCOUNT NUMBER.3205956714, FIRST BANK
He asked our Reporter to send him proof of payment before he will be rewarded.
As soon as our Reporter sent the proof of payment, he called to ask for the Reporter’s bank account number. He was given the account details and not long, he sent an alert of N500,000 but curiously the transaction was showing pending. Meaning it was merely generated.
The show love online operator, then called again telling our Reporter to pay 15 percent Cost of Transaction, COT before the money will reflect on his account. When he was reminded that banks do not collect up to 15 percent on COT, he began to say ” if you want the N500,000 do the transfer of the 15 percent for COT. When he was told to deduct the 15 percent from the N500,000 and send the rest he cut the line and suddenly began to avoid the Reporter’s call. Weeks later when the Reporter sent him message threatening to expose him, he said ” send the COT and you will get your transfer. It is now five months, nothing has been heard from the self acclaimed philanthropist. Funny enough, show love has not stopped duping other innocent people online in the name of giving out free money online.
Maybe with the arrest of these three cyberspace criminals who operate blog, the end of the road may also come the way of many more fraudulent persons online who operate under different methods.
Time will tell but this certainly is the time to start full implementation of the law guiding cyber space operation.