FCT Police arrest lovers for alleged theft, SIM cards fraud

By Peters Monday, Abuja

The Police in Federal Capital Territory has arrested one Nuhu Zaria and his girlfriend, Bunmi Samuel for alleged fraud of snatching mobile phones and stealing money from unsuspecting residents.

The Commissioner of Police, Haruna G. Garba made the disclosure while parading the suspects on Thursday. He added that Nuhu, after snatching phones, removes the SIM cards and sells them out while the girlfriend uses them to defraud the victims of their money using bank USSD codes.

According to him, the operatives of the command attached to the Durumi Police Division recovered 76 SIM cards and other items from the suspects.

His words, “Operatives attached to Durumi Police Division acting on actionable intelligence trailed and arrested one Nuhu Zaria ‘m’ who specialises in snatching GSM Phones from innocent commuters. After snatching phones, he removes the SIM cards and sells the phone, then hands over the SIM cards to his girlfriend, one Bunmi Samuel.

“The girlfriend on her part, makes withdrawals of all monies from the accounts that are linked to the SIM cards. The police operatives have so far recovered seventy-six (76) SIM cards, two (2) Opay ATM cards and a golden wristwatch from the suspects”.

Speaking with DAILY POST shortly after the CP briefed journalists, the female suspect confessed that she had been in the business for over a year.

“We have been doing this for more than a year now. We normally open a mobile wallet where we transfer the money using the bank’s USSD code.

“The moment we are able to access the person’s bank account, we use the code to transfer the money to our wallet.

“Most of the SIM cards were already registered with the banks for mobile banking. I have not made up to N500,000 since I started.

“I appeal to all my victims to please forgive me and I will not do such again in my life.”

However, CP promised to arraign the suspects in court after investigation.