YABATECH graduate arrested for blackmailing veteran singer, Salawa Abeni, with her nude photos

Men of the Rapid Response Squad (RRS) have arrested a 19-year-old Olufowoke Oladunjiye Emmanuel, a National Diploma holder of Yaba College of Technology, Lagos for blackmailing veteran singer, Queen Salawa Abeni with her ”nude photos”.

The police launched an investigation into the matter when the singer came online on April 1 to raise an alarm after she had a chat with the blackmailer who told her that he has her nude photos in his possession and would release them if she fails to pay him some money.

Following a detailed investigation, the suspect, Emmanuel who resides at Brentfield Avenue, Peace Estate, Magboro, Ogun State, was arrested by the Decoy Team of Rapid Response Squad last week Thursday after three days of trailing him.

The suspect who is a 2017.2018 Electrical Engineering graduate from YABATECH, said he picked up a memory card containing the nude photos of the Waka Queen on the floor in YABATECH in November 2019. After downloading the photos, he decided to contact her after getting her number on the internet.

“On 1st of April, 2020, I chatted her up and also called her after sending a few of the photos to her online. My intention was to negotiate with her for few bucks and for me to destroy the photographs.

I thought everything was going on fine until the following day when I heard the news of the blackmail over the radio. I was with my mother. She was even cursing the blackmailer unknown to her that I was the brain behind it.

I immediately sneaked out, destroyed the memory card and threw my mobile phone and SIM card into a nearby wetland in Magboro. Since then, I never mentioned it to anyone and called Madam Salawa Abeni about it again”, he said

Commenting on the arrest, the Lagos state Commissioner for Police, CP Hakeem Odumosu, stated that no individual would be allowed to commit a crime in Lagos from any state or escape to other states in Nigeria to evade arrest.

He advised guardians to monitor their wards, emphasizing that the internet is a fertile ground for opportunities but the State command would not allow criminals to use it as an avenue to exploit law-abiding Lagosians.