The Cross River State Police Command on Friday arrested three Internet fraudsters, also known as yahoo-boys, with charms which they used in defrauding and dispossessing their victims of money and other valuables.

This was just as another group of five yahoo-boys were also arrested on the streets of Calabar.

The Commissioner of Police in the state, Mr. Hafiz Inuwa, who disclosed this in Calabar during the parade of the suspects, gave the names of the yahoo boys that were arrested with charms as 22-year-old Chukwuemeka Ahunanya; Francis Ugochukwu, 25; and Emmanuel Chukwuma, 25.

The CP said the three-man gang had confessed to belonging to a syndicate that was using charms to hypnotise potential victims.

Inuwa said,

“On February 23, 2018, at about 0940hours, the following suspects were arrested in the Akpabuyo Local Government Area on a tip-off. They are Chukwuemeka Ahunanya, Francis Ugochukwu, and Emmanuel Chukwuma.

“During interrogation, the suspects confessed to belonging to an Internet fraud group also known as yahoo boys. They used charms to defraud and dispossess unsuspecting members of the public of their hard-earned money and other valuables. Some charms were recovered from them during the search.”

He said that investigation was ongoing to identify their victims, adding that the suspects would soon be charged to court.

Similarly, Inuwa disclosed that the command also on March 8, 2018, arrested another set of Internet fraudsters.

“We got a tip-off that five young men who specialise in Internet fraud were sighted along Itu Street, off Mary Slessor Avenue, in Calabar, ostensibly to commit a crime.

“The following five suspects were arrested by men of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad: Emmanuel Anthony, 33; Victor Eyo, 23; Joshua Archibong, 22; Michael Oyo, 23; and Edet Emmanuel, 20,“he said.

Inuwa disclosed that items recovered from the suspects were a pair of scissors, bottles of CSP Codeine, some mobile phones, ATM cards, play station and ML 350 Mercedes Benz SUV.

When interrogated by Southern City News, one of the suspects who specialised in using charms, Ahunanya, said the gang introduced the use of charms to defraud their victims two weeks ago.

Ahunanya, who claimed to be a graduate of the Maritime Academy in Akwa Ibom State, said, “We just introduced the use of charms into our business. Though we have not perfected it, we think it will work. We have seen others using it. We started it like two weeks ago. We get information that it works for others using it.”

Another suspect, Chukwuma, said, “We only started using the charms like two weeks ago and we have not seen its potency. We cannot tell if it will work because it has not worked for us. I am new in the Yahoo business.”

The Commissioner of Police said the suspects would be charged to court as soon as the investigation was concluded.