A serial rapist and father of four girls, 38-year-old Belema Ibama have been arrested by Rivers State police Command for allegedly luring women he meets on dating application and rapes them.
According to the police, Ibama identifies himself as “Mr. Anderson,” on dating applications, and presents himself as a British engineer working on an offshore oil rig.
Police said he used the fake identity to lure women to hotels where he would drug, rape, and rob them.
However, his fake identity was blown open after victims numbering over 20 women reported the ‘Mr Andersen ‘ to the police, for sexually assaulting them after inviting them to a hotel .
The police command further said that investigations revealed that Obama had been in criminal activity since 2019. In 2020, he was arrested by Delta State police Command for the same offence.
He was however released on bail but jumped bail and fled to Port Harcourt. In 2021, he was arrested again by the Rivera State Police Command and remanded in prison for six months but was discharged due to a lack of witnesses.
In November 2023, he again went back to his previous crime and had lured and raped 20 women before he was again arrested in 2024.
Narrating her encounter with Ibama, one of the victims said she first met Ibama on the dating app Tinder, after which they agreed to meet in-person at a hotel in Port Harcourt.
She added that during the meeting, Ibama allegedly laced her drink with drugs which made her lose consciousness and slept off. She alleged that after she woke up, she found out that her belongings, including an iPhone and cash, had been stolen.
She further said she reported the matter to the police who began the investigation that ultimately led to Ibama’s arrest.
Some of the items found on Ibama at the time of his arrest were pills suspected to be Tramadol and Rohypnol, along with 15 mobile phones, watches belonging to four women and two women handbags.
During interrogation, police stated that Ibama confessed to using dating apps like Bumble and Tinder to target his victims under aliases such as “Engineer Val Anderson” or “Mr. Anderson.”
Revealing his modus operandis, Ibama told the police that he would use tactics to obtain his victims’ ATM pins by asking them to pay for food or drinks with their cards while he secretly memorized their pin numbers.
He said after them and they were unconscious, he would assault rape them and use their ATM cards to withdraw money. Ibama further admitted to selling stolen items at mobile phone stores.