Fraudster Clones FCT Minister’s Phone, Swindles Him Of N3m

Minister of the Federal Capital Territory,
Senator Bala Muhammad, has fallen
victim to a man, who specialises in
cloning phone numbers and using same to
commit large scale fraud in the process.
The Minister, according to security
information, fell into the trap set for him
by one Ibrahim Sabo Takat, who lives in
Wuye District of the FCT, who used his
phone number and gave instructions, as if
the Minister was the one doing so.
In particular, Takat succeeded in ordering
the Chief of Staff to the Minister to pay
the sum of N3 million into his own
account domiciled with Diamond Bank
with number 0011141544, posing as if
the Minister was the one giving the order.
Unknown to the Chief of Staff, he quickly
arranged and paid the amount into Takat’s
account on Thursday, August 8, 2013
without suspecting any foul play.
Shortly after the amount hit the account,
Takat promptly withdrew it and
disappeared into thin air.
But he ran out of luck shortly after when
the Minister smelt a rat and reported the
huge swindle to the security agencies,
when he discovered that he did not issue
any instruction to this Chief of Staff to
pay the N3 million into the fraudster’s
account.
The FCT Director of Security confirmed
the arrest of Takat yesterday to journalists
in Abuja and said that he would be
charged after concluding investigations
into the fraudulent act.
Takat was paraded by Ibrahim Halilu, on
behalf of the DSS Director FCT Command,
who also asked members of the public to
be careful with the way the handle their
phones and who they give their numbers
to.