A 36-year-old former policeman, Charles Abam, has been arrested for trying to defraud the children of President Muhammadu Buhari.

The Punch reports that the suspect, who is currently being held at the Force Headquarters in Abuja, impersonated Mrs. Daisy Danjuma, wife of Gen. T.Y. Danjuma, in order to defraud Buhari's children.

NAIJ.com gathered that the Delta state indigene sent an SMS to a prominent APC chieftain, demanding for the phone numbers of the president’s children.

The chieftain was said to have replied the SMS that she did not have the phone numbers of the president’s children but sent that of the elder brother of first Lady, Aisha, thinking she was communicating with Daisy Danjuma.

Abam went further to contact the first lady’s brother by SMS, asking for the phone numbers of the president’s children.

He eventually got the phone numbers of the president’s children, whom he sent messages, again impersonating Danjuma. He went on to ask the children to present five names for a phantom job with the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency.


Charles Abam and his accomplice Felix Machi
Members of the presidential family were said to have played along and sent some names and phone numbers to him. Eight names which were provided by the police, were sent to him and his accomplice, Felix Machi.

“The suspect then pretended to be officials of the NDLEA and called the phone numbers that had been sent to him. He asked them to pay a certain amount of money to a bank account, which would be payment for their kits during their training exercise. But no payment was made to the accounts,” the police source revealed

Abam was tracked down through the details of his bank account which he told his supposed victims to pay into.

Regretting his action, Abam said after being jobless since 2003 when he lost his job as a policeman, he found out he could make a lot of money illegally from top Nigerians.

Abam left his police post in 2003 after being enticed by a chance to travel abroad. He said:

“When I had an opportunity to travel out of the country I left my duty post and went on to process my documents, but I was defrauded and I lost all my money.

“I went back to my police job but I was told that I had been declared a deserter. I begged to be reinstated but was not taken back. I then began to look for work. I also applied for a bank security job but did not get it.”

Abam said he started his fraudulent activities in 2014 after his unsuccessful attempts to find a job.

He said:

“I started with internet fraud but I was not making enough money. Then, I went into local fraud. One of my friends, known as Mike, taught me how to impersonate people in order to get phone numbers of prominent politicians.

“Sometimes I also paid to get the phone numbers. I later met Felix (Machi), who became my partner. Before I attempted to defraud the president’s children, I had defrauded many politicians by pretending to be a kidney disease patient.

“I told some politicians that I needed financial help for a kidney transplant and many of them sent money to me. I got N70,000 from a member of the Anambra State House of Assembly, Emeka Obinna, the Commissioner for Lands in Delta state and he gave me N50,000.

“One Senator Ahmed Kamoni, gave me N150,000 while another member of the Anambra state House of Assembly, ObinnaUzor, gave me N50,000. I also got N50,000 from Senator Ahmed Yerima. Even the President of the Christian Association of Nigeria, Pastor Ayo Oritsejefor, gave me N100,000.

“I also got N100,000 from the Speaker of the Akwa Ibom State House of Assembly, Aniofor Udo and N5,500 from a former Director of the Niger Delta Development Commission, Daniel Abia.”

Abam said he gave 10 per cent of all the money he made from his kidney transplant fraud to Machi.

According to him, he only decided they needed to up their game recently when he brought up the idea of defrauding the first family to Machi.

He said he got the phone number of the APC chieftain from the APC chairman in Delta state, Prophet Enu, by impersonating the chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party in the state.

Abam said:

“Eventually, when I contacted the president’s children and they sent me the eight names, I realized the candidates were not cooperating. I knew something had gone wrong when I started receiving calls from people threatening to arrest me.

“I decided to destroy my phones and sim cards. I thought there was no way I could be tracked without them. But I was surprised when the police showed up at my house on Saturday and arrested me.”

The police authorities at the headquarters have said Abam and his accomplice would be charged to court as soon as investigation into the extent of their operation was complete.

Almost everyone is a scam artist now

I don't mind if the fraudsters are going after those embezzling our resources.