By Oluwakemi Kindness
The Nigeria Police Force National Cybercrime Centre (NPF-NCCC) has arrested David Adeyemi-Temitope over a global Business Email Compromise (BEC) scheme involving 12.5 million victim email logs across 50 countries.
Assistant Inspector-General of Police, AIG Akaninyene Ezima, disclosed the breakthrough on Wednesday in Abuja.
Temitope was arrested on July 20 at Megamound Estate, Lekki, Lagos, during Operation Broken Mask, a joint operation with the German Federal Police (BKA) and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP).
Police say the suspect used Telegram phishing kits to breach Microsoft 365 credentials, generating over ₦100 million.
Officers recovered a Mercedes-Benz AMG GLC 43 and linked his BVN to accounts across six banks and fintechs, including GTBank, Zenith Bank, OPay, and PalmPay.
The NPF-NCCC also detailed three related cybercrime busts which includes:
* ₦3.6bn Crypto Fraud: Kelechi Ihekaire (Kestart Technology) was arrested in Lagos after police traced ₦3.62 billion in scam proceeds off-ramped into Tether (USDT) via Bybit P2P trading.
* Pre-Registered SIM Syndicate: Emeka Anthony and Ogboji Solomon were arrested in Anambra with over 100 registered and unregistered MTN and Airtel SIM cards used for identity theft.
* Sextortion & Romance Fraud: Abdulwajeed Abdullahi was nabbed in Kano for posing as a Saudi pilot (“Captain Junaid”) to blackmail female victims and run fake FX investment scams.
AIG Ezima warned that encrypted platforms and cryptocurrency will not shield cybercriminals, urging the public to verify investment schemes and protect their personal data.
