By Dare Ojelade, Lagos
The teenager who tried to blackmail ace Waka musician, Queen Salawa Abeni, has narrated how his mother was raining curses on the culprit not knowing it was her son, reports The Gazelle News.com.
Olufowoke Oladunjoye Emmanuel, 19, now in police custody, said he wanted to make a few bucks from the Waka Queen hence his decision to blackmail her with the nude pictures.
The suspect, a National Diploma holder in Electrical Engineering from the Yaba College of Technology, confessed that he saw the pictures in a memory card he picked up on the floor in Yaba Tech in November last year.
He added that after downloading the nude photographs of Salawa Abeni on his phone, he picked up her mobile number from her Instagram page.
“On 1st of April, 2020, I chatted her up and also called her after sending 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 nearby wetland in Magboro. Since then, I never mentioned it to anyone and called Madam Salawa Abeni about it again”, he disclosed.
Emmanuel was arrested by the operatives of the Rapid Response Squad on Thursday, 28 May, 2020.
The suspect, Olufowoke Oladunjoye Emmanuel, a resident of Brentfield Avenue, Peace Estate, Magboro, Ogun State, was picked up by the Decoy Team of Rapid Response Squad last week Thursday after three days of monitoring him.
The state Commissioner of Police, Mr. Hakeem Odumosu had in the wake of *the* attempt by an unknown individual to blackmail Alhaja Salawa Abeni sometime in April 2020, directed the Commander, Rapid Response Squad, DCP Olatunji Disu to fish out the suspect.
After technical diagnosis of the complaint, the Decoy Team narrowed down on the suspect few days later.
Sources close to the team disclosed that the suspect couldn’t be picked because of the prevalence of Covid 19.
The suspect in his statement to the police confessed to have been the mastermind behind the ploy to publish some nude pictures of Waka Queen in exchange for money, adding that he was alone in the scheme.
Commenting on the arrest, 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 use it as avenue to exploit law – abiding Lagosians.