Segun Atanda/
Juju music maestro, Dr Sunday Adeniyi Adegeye (aka King Sunny Ade or KSA) had reasons to sing police praises today after special intelligence officers at the Lagos State Police Command busted a fraud-syndicate operating in his name.
He told NewsmakersNG today that the fraudsters had robbed him of his peace of mind as their victims kept calling him day and night thinking he was the one behind Instagram and Twitter accounts opened in his name to defraud close to 100 people so far uncovered by detectives.
Three suspects arrested by the police were found to have opened the Instagram and Twitter accounts in the name kingsunnyademusic to advertise a fake USA/UK Musical tour that raked in millions of naira for them.
KSA said, “People were always calling my number that they heard I was organizing a tour. When it was getting too much for me, I had to call the police who helped me. People were thinking I was the one doing it, and I’ve never done anything like that in my life. I’m a law-abiding citizen of this country. I came to the CP and he promised to investigate.”
The prime suspect was identified as 27-year-old Oluwafemi Lawrence Oyedokun, who is the Personal Assistant on Social Media and Publicity to a Nigerian actor and film-maker, Alhaji Yinka Quadri.
He has, however, absolved Quadri of any complicity in the crime when he was quizzed at the Special Investigations Bureau (SIB), at Lagos State Command Headquarters, Ikeja.
The police also arrested Oyedokun’s Ondo-based girlfriend – Rebecca Oyebode, 23, and his Oyo-based friend Oyewunmi Abiodun Ridwan, 27.
Oyedokun allegedly opened several bank accounts including a Diamond Bank account – 0028331958, in the name of Ekundayo Yinka; a FCMB account – 5043577019, in the name of Ayoola Zainab, and GTB account – 0114461866, in the name of Nafeesat Adejumoke and UBA account – 2087728165, UBA, Oyebode Rebecca Abiodun.
Detectives have so far traced a total of N3, 111, 175 obtained from 61 victims.
They also uncovered cash inflows ranging from 22 to 33 victims in a day, even as the suspects are in detention.
Oyedokun, who dropped out of Osun State College of Education, Ilesha, in his second year as an English and political science student, told NewsmakersNG that the bogus scheme was his brainchild.
Most of the accounts were opened in the names of his friends’ girlfriends, but registered with the boys’ phone numbers.
Oyedokun, who once ran a blog named hip-hop gist, said he started impersonating KSA in March 2018 when he created a Facebook fan page for the Juju music king, but involved the other arrested suspects in January.
Oyewunmi and Rebecca told NewsmakersNG how they gave Oyedokun their bank account numbers to use for the transactions.
Oyewunmi, who was arrested in Oyo, said, “He told me that his account was having problem and asked for a loan of N10, 000. He later told me in December that someone was about to send money to him for advertisement and he wanted to use my account because he had no other person that he could trust, so I accepted. He used to ask me that I should forward money to his girlfriend’s account whenever he needed money.”
Rebecca said, “Sometimes in December last year, I came home from school at Adeyemi College of Education, Ondo, and we were together in Osogbo. We’ve been together since my NCE days at Osun State College of Education, Ilesha.
“He told me he had issues with his account. I have Diamond and UBA accounts, so I gave him my UBA account and the ATM. Anytime I see an alert, I’ll call him and he would say it’s from a friend. I gave him my account in January.”
The police found more than N1.4million in Rebecca’s account.
Oyedokun rides a Camry car which he claimed to have bought three years ago.
KSA had some words for Nigerian youths. He said, “What I have been saying for some time now is that the youths should not be too ambitious in getting things that don’t belong to them. Again, they should have the fear of God in their hearts as well as the fear of the laws of the land. Eventually, when you’re doing something that is wrong, you have to pay for it. For somebody who has been doing his own business for many years, you just come and collect money on his name.”
To ensure that people are no longer defrauded through fake social media accounts, King Sunny Ade named his actual Instagram account as officialkingsunnyade, and the Twitter account as iamkingsunnyade.
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