Lagos state Police Command has reportedly apprehended a father of two, who specializes in using social media platforms, particularly Facebook, to lure gullible ladies to hotels, where he sedates, rapes and dispossesses them of their valuables, Vanguard reports.
The suspect, Oluwole Falaseye, 30, uses the pseudo-name Nipheme Ajanaku, and poses as an Abuja-based bank manager on Facebook.
Falaseye quickly gets acquainted with his target victim, and after a while he organizes a meeting in a hotel in the Amuwo-Odofin area of Lagos state.
He used this ploy to invite a lady identified simply as Mercy for a birthday party in Opera Hotel, at Rasaq Junction, Festac Town, last Friday.
However, Mercy, a student at Auchi Polytechnic, Edo State, was unable to attend the “party” in Lagos, so she told her cousin, Tinuke, an undergraduate at The Polytechnic, Ibadan, Oyo State, to represent her.
Atinuke gave a description of what happened at the hotel.
“While at the hotel room, he demanded for my ATM PIN, saying he wanted to transfer N30,000 into my account. I was initially skeptical, but gave him because he said he was a bank manager and that his boss owned the hotel.
“He offered me an alcoholic drink, but I declined because I don’t take alcoholic drinks. He offered me another, saying it was not alcoholic. I took it. That was all I could remember until I woke up to discover he raped me.
“I was bitter, because he is not my boyfriend and I never bargained for such violation. He apologised and we went downstairs for the supposed birthday. He later told me he was going upstairs to see his boss.
“I waited endlessly without seeing him. When I went to the room, I met the door opened, with the key still with me. I was shocked.
“I discovered that my phones, a Samsung Galaxy S6 and another small phone, my necklace, ATM card and my wristwatch were gone. I went downstairs to inform the receptionists about the development and also asked if they saw him leaving.
“They said they do not keep tab on their customers. I raised an alarm which attracted people.”
She also claimed that the suspect withdrew the sum of N172,000 from her account.
The suspect thought he had escaped judgment, little did he know that a trap was being set for him, as the girls planted her girl for him on Facebook, that led to his arrest.
Falaseye, the suspect said it was his first time he would perpetrate the act, and that the medical bill of his daughter led him into it.
“This is my first time of doing this. I sell shoes and suits and I travel round Nigeria to buy and sell. But business has been bad and I didn’t have anybody to ask for money to foot my three-year-old baby’s hospital bill.
“So I just figured out that I could meet the girl I have been chatting with and take her phone to sell. Yes I stole her items.
“I told her to wait in the bar, while I went to the room, took her items and fled. I sold her phone for N20,000.”
According to Lagos State Commissioner for Police, Fatai Owoseni, the suspect would have his day in court soon.
