BY TAIWO FAROTIMI
Two people have been arrested by the Edo State office of the Directorate of State Services, DSS for impersonating Vice President Yemi Osinbajo and Aisha Buhari, wife of the president. The two young men are Ehis Asuelimen and Kelvin Ogashi, aged 30 and 18 respectively. Asuelimen, a student in the department of Business Administration of Ambrose Alli University, Ekpoma was the first to be arrested by the DSS operatives. He was caught on July 25 at Ubiaja in the Esan South East local government area of the state. Barely 24 hours later, Ogashi was picked up at a location in old Aghor road in the Ikpoba Okha local government area of the state.
Asuelimen reportedly confessed to creating a phoney Face Book account with his android phone in the name of the vice president. With it he convinced his victims that the ‘office of the vice president’ was giving out loans to Nigerians, at N100,000 per person. He also added that for an applicant to be eligible for the loan, he or she would have to send money and airtime for processing of registration. Before the law enforcement agents caught up with him, about five people had fallen victims of Asuelimen’s scam.
In the case of Ogashi, he created an instagram account with the photograph of the wife of the president. He too gave the impression that the First Lady was running an empowerment programme for Nigerian youth. He therefore enjoined his audience to register with some token, so as to qualify for start up capital from Aisha Buhari. Though he created the account last May, Ogashi is said not to be alone in this fraudulent exercise. Galadima Byange, deputy director of DSS in the state, who paraded the suspects on Wednesday, said Ogashi’s accomplices at still at large.
So what motivated them to do this? Asuelimen, who exonerated his parents from having knowledge of his actions, said he wanted to use the proceeds of the fraud to fund his education. He would have to save that for the court. This is because Byange said the Service will charge them to court soon.
