Police Arrest Suspected Forgers of Foreign Certificates in Lagos

Police in Zone 2, Onikan, Lagos, have detained two alleged international scammers who specialise in falsifying degrees from several African and foreign universities.
The accused, Elvis Osakpolo Edokpain, 23, and Kelly Osas Endgieen, 24, are also skilled at deceiving their gullible victims online. With the money they have made from their theft, they have been able to build homes across the nation and buy expensive cars.
Zone 2 police sources revealed that once detectives at the zone’s Anti-Corruption Unit got reliable information from outside Nigerians about a group of boys who specialise in forging foreign qualifications, the tables turned against the suspects.

It was discovered that Adegoke Fayoude, the zone’s assistant inspector general of police, assigned a comprehensive anti-corruption unit to look into the information. According to reports, he ordered them to be collected up immediately.

Detectives stormed Murtala Muhammed International Airport in Ikeja, Lagos, on his orders, according to police sources. As soon as the suspects arrived, they were followed to the five-star Osapa-London hotel in Lekki, where they were later confronted at the bus stop as they attempted to flee the hotel.

It was discovered that during the check of their luggage, Elvis Osakpolo Edokpiain’s Blue Crest College, Ghana certificate and an Academic City College student ID card were found from Kenny Osas.

After more investigation, a transcript of Elvis Osapolo’s Blue Crest University academic record was found. After conducting another search, investigators found a reference letter and a certificate of English competence from the same Blue Crest College.
According to reports, during questioning, the suspects provided the police with helpful testimonies and admitted that they were never admitted to the institution but obtained their degree diploma with the assistance of a female Nigerian living in Ghana.
The suspects added that their primary motivation was to obtain a Ghanaian residency visa, which they were able to do. and the suspects’ residency permits also identify them as Academic City University students. However, the school has never accepted any of them.

According to police sources, the suspects also admitted that they were forced to pay 15,000 Ghanaian cedis for the certificate, 5,000 Ghanaian cedis (or N1.5 million), and 5,000 Ghanaian cedis (or 500,000 dollars) for the residency permit.
According to reports, they spent 26,000 Ghanaian cedis in total to obtain the documents. After being questioned further, they said that they are doing this to avoid being arrested in Ghana because they have no source of income.
In their confessional testimonies, the suspects claim that because we have no source of income in Ghana, we will present our passports as students anytime the police stop us.

On further interrogation, they confessed that they do fraudulent activities, such as online romance scam and the provision of foreign bank accounts for fraudulent transactions on internet through what they called ‘ Facebook bombing’.

The suspects said; “we meet people online and present ourselves as an American soldier by name Captain Donald Rowe, whom we are impersonating on Instagram. He is a captain of the United States of America and currently on peacekeeping mission in Syria. While we are engaging our victims, we will tell them that there are goods in Syria that if they are interested to buy, they should pay money and we will send the goods to you. We will show them pictures of good materials in Syria.

The suspects also said,” After they make the payment, we use our block chain wallets to collect the money or foreign bank accounts which at last are being credited in our Nigerian accounts. We have our partners in UK, South Africa and other countries and most of our victims are from Japan, Denmark, China and other countries.”

Law enforcement sources indicated that police officials have already contacted the Ghanaian embassy to obtain further details about the results and their alleged associates in Ghana who are believed to be leading the fraudulent activities. Simultaneously, they have expanded their search efforts via the International Police, Interpol, to capture their international partners in crime.

The individuals accused, who stated that they only completed secondary education in Benin City, expressed their sorrow over the situation they found themselves in, mentioning that poverty and the need to survive pushed them toward committing fraud. They urged young people in the nation to strive diligently in order to attain success and to refrain from seeking shortcuts to achieve it.