The Department of State Services (DSS) has arrested 42-year-old man, Mohammed Prince Momoh, pictured above, for posing as an aide to the Chief of Staff to the President, Ibrahim Gambari, to defraud one Benson Aniogo of $50, 000.
Disclosing this to newsmen, the spokesperson of the DSS, Peter Afunanya, said Momoh attempted to defraud Aniogu after claiming he represented Gambari and needed the said amount to secure an appointment for him as a Special Adviser to the President on Oil and Gas.
Afunanya said the suspect who is an indigene of Kogi state, had approached Aniogu, from Bayelsa State, telling him he was a security aide attached to Gambari. Momoh had claimed that $25, 000 would be for the Chief of Staff while the remaining would be for the “boys” who would help secure the appointment.
Afunanya said Momoh worked briefly some time ago as an aide to someone in the Presidential Villa and had some knowledge of the workings of the environment. He said Momoh and his team had visited Aniogu in his house in Abuja to collect the money. The victim however suspected a foul play and immediately alerted the authorities who arrested Momoh.
The DSS Spokesman advised Nigerians who use social media to mind the kind of information they drop in their space, as there are always criminal elements harvesting information to use and defraud unsuspecting people.
“They should be wary and ask questions when and where they need to to. For every suspicion of crime please relate to appropriate security agencies and pass information timely to them so they needful can be done,” Afunanya said
Momoh who is married with children, admitted to committing the crime. He also confessed he had worked in the Presidential villa between 2013 and 2014.