A man has been arrested for allegedly cloning the phone number of Ebonyi State Governor Martin Elechi and using it to defraud top government officials in the state.
The suspect, Ebube Mbonu was seized by operatives of the State Security Service (SSS).
Parading the suspects at the command headquarters in Abakaliki, the state capital, Assistant Director, Operations and Intelligence, D.M. Ihejirika said the suspect sent text messages to 10 government officials with the cloned phone number.
Mbonu allegedly told them to pay N300,000 into his bank account and warned them to keep it confidential.
One of the messages reads: “Please contact Mr. Promise on 080****** and make N300,000 available in the morning because he is on a special assignment for me. Keep confidential. Thank you.”
Another reads: “From the governor, a staff of mine shall call you this morning. Thank you.”
Ihejirika said the messages were sent out a few days to the recent visit of the First Lady, Dame Patience Jonathan, to the state and that made the recipients unsuspicious.
He said the SSS got wind of the alleged fraud and seized Mbonu.
Ihejirika said nine SIM cards were recovered from the suspect.
But Mbonu denied sending the text messages and said he was being set up. He said he got a call from his friend, simply identified as Chinedu, asking him to come to his (Chinedu’s) house and was arrested there.
Mbonu said: “Some days before that, I got a text message from the governor’s number that a staff of his will contact me. A few minutes later, some people started calling me on the phone asking me to send them my account number that they have been directed to send me some money. I suspect that I might have been set up. The security operatives are investigating the case and I am hopeful they will get to the root of it.”
On how he knew the message he got was from the governor, Mbonu said he has the governor’s number because he worked for him during the elections.
Also yesterday, a five-man gang that specialises in stealing telecommunications cables was apprehended by SSS operatives.
Ihejirika said they were seized at the NITEL headquarters in Abakaliki after midnight, while trying to steal the cables.
The suspects are Ekene Medulu (22), Chinedu Akaba, Chidozie Ekoh (30), Jude Anaba (25) and Peter Zira.
via The Nation http://www.thenationonlineng.net/2011/index.php/news/48534-man-held-for-%E2%80%98cloning-elechi%E2%80%99s-phone-number%E2%80%99.html
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