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| Wizkid and Sunday Are |
Following several claims and complains from clients, the
Lagos State Police Command two days ago arrested a 19-year-old girl who posed
as music star, Ayodeji Ibrahim Balogun, aka Wizkid, on social media and
defrauded many people of over $65,000, equivalent of about N12.9million.
A promoting agency, Humble Entertainment had earlier openly blasted
Wizkid for failing to perform at its event despite being paid.
In a statement, the company claimed that, ‘despite going
through all the necessary requirements to book Wizkid which included signing a
contract and paying the required fee, we have been let down’
Wizkid manager in Nigeria, Sunday Are denied knowledge of the
show while Wizkid remain mum but instead complained to the police commissioner
that someone had been impersonating him and collecting money for shows.
After thorough investigation, the police was able to arrest
a 19-year-old suspect, identified as Ifeoma Nelly in connection to the crime.
Ifeoma was said to be a student of Industrial Chemistry at the Delta State
University. She was arrested through the combined efforts of Wizkid’s Manager,
Mr. Sunday Are, policemen from Lagos and an Australian when she came to Lagos
to collect part payment of $25,000 from some Australians at a hotel in Lagos,
so that Wizkid would go to Australia to perform.
Accoding to Sunday Are, the suspect had been posing on
Facebook and defrauding people for three years, using Wizkid.
Are said:
“She has collected money from different people. If you don’t
have evidence against her, she would deny it. But if you show her evidence, she
would tell you the truth. There was the case of the $53,000, which we had to
refund to the owner.
She confirmed that she was the one who collected it. There
was another payment of $12,500 from Germany. The Germany people sent details of
how they paid the money to her. She couldn’t deny it.”
Are said they had to start refunding money to different
victims when the nefarious activities of the suspect became embarrassing.
“We had been having problems
with different clients because of this. We keep refunding all the money. It was
an issue. When it became serious, we had to refund the money to victims. Some
people will just go, write in papers that Wikzid disappointed them. They would
say Wizkid and his manager collected money and didn’t come to perform.
Meanwhile, we didn’t know about those shows.”
Are added that the lady, not only used Wizkid’s name to open
the Facebook accounts, but also used Wizkid’s name to register the phone she
was using.
“Whenever someone calls her or she calls someone, its
Wizkid’s name that would show.
True caller shows Wizkid. We need everybody to help us fight
this. We’ve started working towards doing something about the fake accounts.”
According to Are, he and Wizkid went to Zambia for a show. They were there when he received a call from some people in
Australia. The caller said he wanted to know if he was speaking with Sunday
Are, Wizkid’s manager. The Australian said that he had been speaking with
someone, pretending to be Are.
The Australian said that he had almost concluded negotiation
for Wizkid to come to Australia to perform and was just about to pay $25,000
part payment, when he heard that Wizkid was in Zambia. The Australian said it
was quite unlikely for Wizkid to be in Zambia, while his manager would be in
Lagos. The Australian sourced Are’s phone number and called; the real Are
picked.
Are said:
“They said someone wanted to collect money from them in
Lagos, Nigeria, for Wizkid to come and perform. They now found out that I was
in Zambia. They now wondered how possible it was for Wizkid’s manager to be in
Zambia, while Wizkid was in Lagos. They managed to get my number and called me.
I planned with them on how to make this arrest. I talked to
them to convince the suspect to come and collect cash in a hotel in Lagos. That
was how I managed to arrest her. “She came along with two friends. They were
two ladies and a guy. She looked like a guy.
It took us three to four hours before we could believe she
was a lady. She wore native clothes and spotted low cut, like she is Sunday
Are. She wore Rolex wrist watch. She bought clothes for the lady that came with
her because that one said she didn’t have any clothes good enough to wear to
come and collect the money. “The arrest happened in a hotel in Lagos.
I planted policemen inside the hotel room. The people gave
the lady an Australian number, saying the Australian didn’t have a Nigerian
number. Everything looked genuine. The show was to be in Australia, the phone
number was an Australian number and the man she was speaking with, was a white
man. But the man was actually in Australia, directing them to come to the hotel
to collect cash. They entered the room and we arrested them.”
See photo of the suspect below;
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