Job Fraudsters Arrested For Duping Applicants Of N30m, Airtime Thieves Nabbed In Katsina

The suspects

According to a report by The PUNCH, the Department of State Services, Katsina State Command, on Thursday, paraded four men alleged to have swindled jobseekers out of over N30m.

The suspects – Rilwanu Tanwa, 40; Muhammed Yahaya, 46; Abdulrahman Salisu, 42; and Nura Musa, 35 — were paraded at the command headquarters.

The agency said it recovered from the suspects desktop and laptop computers, two flash drives, copies of fake appointment letters, transaction receipts, a commercial bank statement of account and four mobile phones.

The DSS claimed that the suspects defrauded each of the jobseekers of amounts ranging from N200,000 to N500,000, after which they were issued with fake appointment letters of the Katsina State Teaching Service Board and the State Universal Basic Education Board, respectively.

The actual number of defrauded applicants and other details were not provided, though the suspects were alleged to have confessed to committing the crime.

Also paraded on Thursday were three men who specialised in hacking the phone numbers of top government officials and politically exposed persons in the state to steal airtime “worth thousands of naira.”

The suspects were identified as Imarana Yusuf, 30; Abba Rabi’u, 25; and Ahmad Musa, 23.

The men were arrested at the Unguwan Sanusi area and Kwanan Farakwai village in the Kaduna North and Igabi local government areas of Kaduna State.

The DSS said it also recovered three mobile phones allegedly used by the suspects to commit the crime.

The Director of Operations and Intelligence in the command, Suleiman Bello, who addressed the press during the parade, said, “All the suspects would be charged to court at the completion of investigation.”