The Nigerian Air Force in Friday paraded a suspected fraudster, Musa (surname withheld) for allegedly exploiting the ongoing recruitment exercise into the service to extort money from unsuspecting applicants.
The Director of Information and Public Relations of the NAF, Group Capt. Ayodele Famuyiwa, who paraded the suspect at the NAF headquarters on Friday, said that Musa belonged to a syndicate which specialized in using the recruitment exercise to deceive and swindle unsuspecting job seekers.
Famuyiwa stated that the victim had extorted N595,000 from three of his victims before his arrest,
He said that the service commenced investigation into the activities of the syndicate when it received a letter from the Federal Character Commission that the NAF was charging Nigerians for the exercise.
He said that the leadership of the NAF was shocked because the service made publications in the media and its official Facebook page and website that the ongoing recruitment exercise for airmen and women and officer was free.
Famuyiwa said that operatives of the service got a lead on the syndicate when a driver to a service personnel called the attention of his boss to complaints by some victims who complained they were being made to pay N50,000 to get the job.
According to him, the victims supplied the phone numbers of the members of the syndicate which were used to track them to Yoruba Mosque, Wuse 2, where Musa was arrested while his associate, one Usman, who worked with the Federal Capital fled.
The Air Force spokesman said that operatives found a letter with the letterhead of the Senate President purported to have been written to the Chief of Army Staff to recommend some listed candidates for recruitment into the service.
He also said that complementary cards of prominent Nigerians, a supposed MOU with applicants and several ATM cards obviously used to convince his victims, were recovered from him.
He said, “We got a letter from the Federal Character Commission that the NAF was charging fees for recruitment. It was so surprising because we have made publications in the media, and also our Facebook page to alert the public, we also made posters and distributed them across the country to alert the public that the exercise was fee.
“One of our soldiers has a cab, and some passengers were complaining to the driver that the NAF was collecting money for recruitment. The driver collected their numbers and those of the members of the syndicate and reported to our personnel.
The Air Police called the number and were charged N50k and agreed to meet them Yoruba mosque, Wuse 2, Abuja, and that was how he was arrested. A letter head of the office of the Senate President was found in his house but his colleague who took him in car to the place escaped.”
He said that the suspect would be handed over the police for further investigation and prosecution.
However, Musa said that it was Usman (now at large) that introduced him to the fraud.
He admitted that the group collected money from applicants into the Air Force and blamed the devil for his action.
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