Edo Police arrest Fake Facebook spiritualist after abducting clients
A suspected Facebook spiritualist who specialized in abducting his clients has been arrested in Edo State.
The Edo State Police Command arrested Frank Johnson, 25, in Akoko, community in Akoko Edo local government area.
It was gathered that Frank and others at large opened Facebook accounts and impersonated a spiritualist providing richness and good health.
The victim approached the gang of fraudsters in Port Harcourt to pray for his employer to pay him arrears salaries after he complained that the security firm's owner owed him for several months.
The unidentified victim was charged N45,000 for the spiritual intervention. Two weeks later, The Standard Gazette gathered, the man informed his "spiritualists" that his employer was yet to pay him despite their intervention.
Following his complaints, the fraudsters advised him to travel down to Akoko Edo for another round of spiritual intervention.
In an interview with journalists, the victim said, "I travelled to Okenne from Port Harcourt on the advice of the native doctor who then told me to take a commercial motorcycle to Akoko Community.
"They met me and took me to a riverside in a forest. Later they told me that they were not native doctors but kidnappers. They forced me to call my family members to bring money for them.
"I told them that there was no cash for now. I was threatened with a knife. The people numbering three then collected my ATM and forced the password out of me.
"This suspect, Frank Johnson was giving the ATM to go and collect the money from the point of Sales (POS) spot in Igarra where he was arrested.
"Upon a search, the ATM card was found with the suspect and he could not explain how he had an ATM that did not carry his name and was holding a paper with a pin code. He was then arrested".
Another victim who fell into the bandwagon of deceit from Bayelsa State also travelled to the Akoko community. He was kidnapped and beaten to a stupor before they called his family for ransom.
The second victim said, "I met this man on Facebook, and he claimed to be a spiritualist.
"I told him to help me, that I want my children to be highly educated, and he promised to do it. He encouraged me to travel to Akoko in Edo state. But I was then kidnapped.
"When they demanded money and l could not provide it, they beat me up with wood and iron rod till l passed out.
"I only found myself later in the hospital. I thank the police for rescuing me, and I want to advise people not to embark on a blind trip as I did".
The police are still investigating to ascertain other persons who must have been kidnapped in the same manner.
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