Suspects accused of hypnotising, defrauding female student of N9.8m arrested by police

The police have arrested five suspected members of a fraud syndicate that hypnotised and defrauded a female student of Ambrose Alli University (AAU) Ekpoma, Edo State of N9.8 million.

The state’s police command also paraded 46 other suspected criminals for their involvement in cultism and other illegal activities.

The Public Relations Officer (PPRO) of the Edo State Police Command, Chidi Nwabuzor, a Superintendent of Police (SP), while parading the suspects in Benin yesterday, stated that the fraud syndicate’s members were arrested between July 9 and 10 at various locations in Edo.

Nwabuzor said: “The story started when the young girl, who is a student of AAU, Ekpoma, was accosted and hypnotised by the suspects.

“The female student subsequently lost her senses and the fraudsters seized her phone and asked her to demobilise the phone, and they started withdrawing money from her account to the tune of N9.8 million.”

The Edo PPRO also stated that the 46 suspected cultists were arrested by the operatives of the Anti-Kidnapping and Cyber Crime Unit of the command in collaboration with the local vigilance members while fighting the upsurge in cult killings and rivalry in the state.

He said: “There was an upsurge in cult fights and killings among rival cult groups in Edo State, and police operatives of the command’s Anti-Kidnapping and Cyber Crime Unit investigating the cult fights arrested 18 suspects on July 10.

“On July 13 this year, 28 other cultists were arrested. The suspects were arrested at Okhoro, Medical, New Benin, Ugbowo and other parts of Benin City.