‘I Befriend Ladies On Facebook, Get Nude Pictures, Blackmail Them’ - Suspect

A 35-year-old father of three, Michael Atanda, has told operatives of the Rapid Response Squad (RRS), Ikeja, Lagos, how easy it was to hoodwink ladies via Facebook into sending him nude pictures, which he later used to blackmail them.

The suspect, described as a former convict, said that his hobby was to befriend ladies on social media, pretend like he was interested in marrying them, and then get their nude pictures.

He said after that, he would start threatening to share the nude pictures on social media if they did not pay him. Atanda was said to have been jailed last year for a similar offence, after fraudulently collecting N700,000 from a lady he met on a dating site. He was arrested on Thursday after he started blackmailing four ladies.

They reported him to the police. Atanda, a Computer Science National Diploma Holder from a computer school in Ikeja, was arrested by the surveillance team of the RRS after about a five-day manhunt. Disclosing his modus operandi, Atanda said: “My profile picture on my Facebook account shows that I’m based in London.

Whenever I come across ladies on the Facebook, I introduced myself as a construction engineer, that I and my parents live in Europe. After sometime, I would lure the ladies into sexual conversation and persuaded them to send their nude pictures to me.

After much persuasion they would send. I’ll send them mine. Before sending their pictures, I would pretend as if I was seeking a serious relationship with them, and promised them that I would be coming to Abuja on a business trip and promised to see some of those residing in Abuja. “Whenever I wanted to call the girls, I always used software that changes my Nigeria line into an international one.

They would believe I was calling from London. After they sent their nude pictures to me, I would come up with all manners of stories and begin to demand.

I have collected about N121,000 from victims. I collected only N10,000 from one Motunrayo, N6,000 from Joy and N105,000 from one Lizzy.” The police said:

“After collecting N121,000, from the four girls, he wanted to collect more money from them. He said that if they refused to give him more money, he would leak their nude pictures on the social media.

“The suspect, in order to defraud ladies on the social media, changed his name to Segun Bayo and claimed to be a gradu-ate of Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife and went about adding several ladies on the his Facebook account. Some of the victims, through phone call, told the police that they had been paying the suspect not to leak their nude photographs online.”

The state Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), Dolapo Badmos, said: “The suspect has been transferred to the State Criminal Investigations Department (SCID), Panti, Yaba, for further investigation.”