Operatives of the Anti-Fraud Unit of the Airport Police Command have arrested a 20-year-old suspected celebrity scammer and romance fraudster, Essien Emmanuel Akpama, while attempting to board a flight out of Lagos State.
Akpama was arrested on Sunday, January 5, following months of intelligence-led surveillance by the Police, based on credible information linking him to large-scale fraud targeting victims in the United States of America.
The Police alleged that the suspect is responsible for defrauding multiple victims of over N1 billion, an amount estimated to be more than one million United States dollars.
Confirming the arrest, the Police Public Relations Officer of the Airport Police Command, ASP Mohammed Adeola, said the operation was the result of sustained monitoring and coordinated intelligence efforts.
According to a statement issued by the Command, preliminary investigations revealed that Akpama, who previously resided in Calabar, Cross River State, relocated to Lagos on February 23, 2024, from where he allegedly coordinated and executed several fraudulent schemes.
“In one instance in 2024, the suspect, through a celebrity scam modus operandi, deceived a 47-year-old female victim in the United States into transferring one million US dollars under the pretext of purchasing property in Florida for an orphanage,” the statement said.
The funds were reportedly solicited through a cryptocurrency scheme identified as “BullRun 2.0,” formerly known as “4 Way Mirror Money.”
Further investigations revealed that Akpama also allegedly defrauded another 70-year-old female victim in the United States of N25,709,400, equivalent to $18,000.
The fraud was said to have been perpetrated through the purchase of gift cards, high-end mobile phones and computer equipment, which were shipped to Nigeria at the suspect’s direction.
Items recovered in connection with the case include one MacBook Pro 14-inch, one iPhone 17 Pro Max, two Google Pixel 10 Pro XL devices, and one Google Pixel 10 Pro, with a total estimated value of N8,141,367.
Police investigations further revealed that the suspect allegedly posed as a 60-year-old orthopedic surgeon working with the United Nations in Nigeria, claiming the devices were required to maintain secure communication with one of the victims.
The Commissioner of Police, Airport Police Command, CP Ogunbode Olufunke, MNIPS, PhD, reaffirmed the Command’s commitment to preventing criminal elements from using airport corridors to evade justice. She stressed that the Command would continue to deploy intelligence-driven operations to detect, disrupt and dismantle criminal networks within and around Nigeria’s aviation environment.
The case has since been transferred to the Nigeria Police Force Special Fraud Unit (NPF-SFU) for further investigation, while the suspect is expected to be arraigned in court upon the conclusion of investigations.
