The Nigerian Army has warned members of the general public that any recruitment campaign through Facebook into the Nigerian Army is a fraud.

Parading one Samuel Omoh Eromosele, yet another suspect involved in defrauding members of the public and even military personnel seeking advancement in their career in the military and para-military services especially Nigerian Army and Nigerian Customs Service in Abuja, acting Director of Army Public Relations, Col. Sani Kukasheka Usman said

“The public are please reminded that recruitment and commission into the Nigerian Army are free and should report any person or persons that request for any form of gratification to facilitate entry. The public are to please disregard any person fronting for any military officer or personality to secure recruitment in the Nigerian Army.”

Narrating how Eromosele operated, Usman explained:

“As you may recall, the Nigerian Army on 3 Jun 15 alerted members of the public to the fraudulent activities of a syndicate including one Balogun Precious Ehi. The syndicate was said to specialize in extorting money from unsuspecting members of the public under the guise of enlisting them into the army. The Nigerian Army further informed the public that efforts were ongoing to track and apprehend members of the syndicate.

“The paraded Samuel Omoh Eromosele is one of the fraudsters. The suspect has been masquerading as ‘Balogun Precious Ehi’ to defraud members of the public using the good name of the Army. Thanks to the Nigerian Army Corps of Military Police (NACMP), this suspect was trailed to his family house at Ewu in Esan-Central Local Government Area of Edo State where he was arrested in the early hours of 17 June 2015.

“Subsequent investigation carried out by the NACMP revealed the following facts about this suspect: Samuel Omoh Eromosele on 9 May 2015, posted an advertisement in the comments section of the website known as ‘www.nigerianbestforum.com’. The advert was entitled ‘NIGERIAN ARMY DIRECT SHORT SERVICE COMMISSION 2015/2016 ONLINE APPLICATION FORM’. The opening paragraph of the advert posted online by the suspect using his smart phone read:

‘Nigerian Army Direct Short Service Commission DSSC recruitment 2015/2016 online application are invited from eligible Nigerians for commission into Nigerian Army as DSSC officers. The DSSC application form is open to both civilians and serving military personnel graduates. However, only serving military personnel sponsored by any of the service of the Nigerian Armed forces to civil institutions shall be considered’. Samuel Omoh Eromosele further posted as follows; ‘Purchase your PIN and Application website address at Nigerian Army Direct Short Service Commission DSSC office headquarters or call DSSC on +2348130967705’.

“Unsuspecting members of the public who called the suspect were requested to pay Four thousand Five hundred Naira (N4, 500.00) as application fee. The first victim of Samuel Eromosele’s scam was requested to pay the application fee into the suspect’s account number 5503010006941 at First Bank PLC. This account with First Bank was opened with the suspect’s real name. To cover his tracks, Samuel Eromosele subsequently opened another account under a false name with Fidelity Bank PLC, into which the subsequent victims paid their respective application fee. Fidelity Bank provided the investigation team with the following details of the account: Date of Account opening: 26 May 15; Account name:       Precious Ehi Balogun; Account number: 6172507539; Address of Account holder: 8 Felly Lane, off Egan Street, Ekpoma, Edo State; Phone contact of Account holder: 08130967705 and 07038556203.

“Aside from the first victim who paid N4,500.00 into the suspect’s First Bank account, six other victims had paid a total of Twenty-Eight thousand Naira (N28,000:00) into the Fidelity Bank account opened by the suspect as at the time of his arrest on 17 July 2015. To convince Fidelity Bank that he was in fact ‘Precious Ehi Balogun’, the suspect made a fake student identity card, purportedly of Ambrose Alli University. The details on the fake identity card used by the suspect in opening the account with Fidelity Bank are as follows: Name: Balogun Precious Ehi; Matric Number: FSS/SOC/13/08927; Faculty: Faculty of Social Sciences; Department: Sociology.

“Shortly before his arrest on 17 July 2015, Samuel Omoh Eromosele, yet again posing as ‘Precious Ehi’, posted an advertisement on the website known as ‘www.jiji.com’. The advert was entitled ‘NIGERIA CUSTOM SERVICE NCS 2015/2016 BATCH ONLINE APPLICATION’. The opening paragraph of the post by the suspect using his smart phone is reproduced verbatim as follows:

‘Nigeria Custom Service NCS recruitment 2015/2016 online application are invited from eligible Nigerians for general employment/commission into the Nigeria Custom Service as full time cadet officers. The NCS application form is open to both male and female civilians, civil servants and serving military personnel graduates and non graduates. However, only serving personnel sponsored by any of the service of the Nigerian Armed forces to civil institutions shall be considered’.

‘Precious Ehi’ further posted that interested persons were to call 08130967705 ‘for more enquiries’.

“A number of incriminating evidence were recovered from the suspect at the time of his arrest. These include: The Fidelity Bank ATM card tied to the account opened by the suspect; A fake Voter’s card with the suspect’s true picture, but with ‘Frank Precious Omoh’ as the card holder; The MTN SIM card with number 07038556203 which was used to open the Fidelity Bank account.

“The essence of parading this suspected fraudster is to send a clear message to all criminal minded persons bent on tarnishing the image of the Nigerian Army through fraudulent activities.

“The public are please reminded that recruitment and commission into the Nigerian Army are free and should report any person or persons that request for any form of gratification to facilitate entry. The public are to please disregard any person fronting for any military officer or personality to secure recruitment in the Nigerian Army.”

The Press briefing was attended by the Spokesperson of Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), Wale and Adeniyi and Commander Nigerian Army investigation bureau, Lt Col KC Okoro amongst others.