Anthony Iwuoma
The police have arrested a 19-year-old National Diploma holder of Yaba College of Technology, Lagos for allegedly blackmailing Waka Queen, Salawa Abeni, with her nude photographs.
However, Olufowoke, who was arrested last Thursday by the decoy team of the Rapid Response Squad (RRS), claimed to have found the nude pictures in a memory card he found on the school’s floor about November last year.
The Electrical Engineering student lives at Brentfield Avenue, Peace Estate, Magboro, Ogun State, but was arrested by the RRS after monitoring him for three days, following the directives of the Lagos State Commissioner of Police, Hakeem Odumosu, to the RRS Commander, DCP Olatunji Disu, to unearth the mastermind of the blackmail and bring him to book.
The police Decoy Team narrowed down on the suspect few days later after technical diagnosis of the complaint, but could not immediately pick him up due to the COVID- 19 pandemic.
Olufowoke confessed to have masterminded the ploy to threaten Salawa Abeni to publish some of her nude pictures if she did not part with some.
He disclosed that he was not alone in the scheme, adding that he downloaded the nude photographs of the Waka Queen on his phone and lifted her mobile number with which she contacted her from her Instagram page.
“On 1st of April, 2020, I chatted her up and also called her after sending few of the photos to her online,” RRS quoted Olufowoke as saying.
“My intention was to negotiate with her for few bucks and for me to destroy the photographs.
“I thought everything was going on fine until the following day when I heard the news of the blackmail over the radio. I was with my mother. She was even cursing the blackmailer unknown to her that I was the brain behind it.
“I immediately sneaked out, destroyed the memory card and threw my mobile phone and SIM card into nearby wetland in Magboro. Since then, I never mentioned it to anyone and called Madam Salawa Abeni about it again.”
The RRS commander admonished parents to keep an eye on their wards, vowing that the police would not allow criminals to escape justice.
