The suspect, who claimed to live at No. 16, Opaleye Street, Mile 2, Lagos State, was apprehended by the NSCDC’s crack team of detectives at his hideout on Offa Road in Ilorin, where he was joined by two other suspects.

The Defence Corps’ spokesman, Babawale Zaid Afolabi, said in Ilorin on Tuesday that the corps’ intelligence and investigations department received a missing phone complaint from one Buraimoh Sunmonu Adebayo, (57), of No. 207, Lagos Road, Sawmill area of Ilorin, who claimed he lost his phone when he boarded a tricycle from Ilorin Grammar School to Taiwo Road in Ilorin metropolis.

“The complainant discovered that a sum of N500,000 had allegedly been withdrawn from his personal and company accounts where he is one of the signatories only a few hours after losing his phone.”

“Our detectives and the tactical team later swung into action and tracked down the suspect at his hideout at Offa road, Ilorin on Monday where he was rounded up along with two of his accomplices,” the spokesman stated.

In his confessional statement, the suspect admitted to being a well-known internet fraudster and confessed to stealing Buraimoh Sunmonu Adebayo’s phone, according to him.

“I confessed that I had so far withdrawn the sum of N400,000 from two of the complainant’s bank accounts, not N500,000 as claimed by the complainant,” the suspect added.

Alfred Adegoke (34) and Yusuf Saman (30) were two other accomplices apprehended at the hideout.

Thirteen cellphones and some substances suspected to be hard drugs were among the items recovered from them at the hideout.

Iskil Ayinla Makinde, the Commandant of the command, has ordered a full investigation into the matter, and the suspects will be charged in court once the investigation is completed.