3 Nigerians nabbed for extortion face raps

MANILA, Philippines — Three Nigerian men are facing criminal cases after they were arrested in Las Piñas City on allegations of extortion and involvement in scamming activities, the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) reported last Friday.

Ugochukwu Osuagwu, Chinonso Omeje and Benjamin Onu were slapped with complaints of extortion and violation of Republic Act 12010, or the Anti-Financial Account Scamming Act in relation to RA 10175, or the Cybercrime Prevention Act.

NBI director Jaime Santiago said the suspects were arrested in an entrapment operation last Sept. 11 in response to a woman’s complaint.

The victim said she met Osuagwu on a dating site and briefly dated in August 2022.

The complainant said the suspect borrowed her GCash account and SIM number under the guise of transferring money for university tuition, unaware that the suspect and his cohorts used her accounts as money mule for the proceeds of their scamming activities.

The victim even ended up in jail after one of the people whom the suspects duped filed charges against her.

She asked the suspects to return her accounts, but they demanded P3,000 which was lowered to P2,500.

The suspects were arrested after they accepted the marked money. Cell phones with GCash accounts and ATM cards were also recovered from them.