Operatives of the Rapid Response Squad (RRS) have arrested an Oregun, Lagos church protocol officer, said to lure female worshippers to hotels, took their nude pictures which he used to extort money from them.
The suspect Victor Duru, 23, a university dropout, was arrested on Thursday in Surulere after one of his victims reported him to RRS.
He was said to have repeatedly blackmailed the unnamed woman whose picture he allegedly took at gunpoint with the help of his friend.
The lady was said to have been lodged by Duru, who was her lover at a hotel in Ijeshatedo where they allegedly took her nude photos.
Tired of the extortion, the lady was said to have complained to the RRS commander Olatunji Disu, a Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP), who directed his men to investigate.
In the course of investigation, detectives found out that Duru kept nude photographs of other women he had lodged at different hotels and his apartment in Ijeshatedo.
In his statement to the police, Duru reportedly said he carried out the action with one Frank Obinna, adding that the gun they used was a toy.
He told the police that the lady who reported was his lover and they were having issues.
“She was my girlfriend. We attend the same church. We have been dating for almost two years. We were having breakup issues, so I invited her to a hotel in Ijeshatedo.
“I excused myself and invited my friend, Frank Obinna, to meet me in the hotel. Obinna and I had this planned.
“The gun was a toy gun. He entered the hotel room and held the lady at gunpoint. I told her to cooperate. I took off her clothes for Obinna to take her pictures. We took seven different shots of her with my phone. I discharged her that day. This was in September.
“By early October, I called her to give me N80,000 or I would throw the nude photographs online. She was only able to offer me N10,000, which she transferred into my brother’s account.
“Last week, Obinna called her again and requested for N40,000. She promised to send something. She was a wonderful girl. She used to assist me financially before the problem started,” he told police.
His estranged lover said Obinna “brought out his phone and I asked my boyfriend what was going on. He slapped me telling me to remove the blanket covering my body. I refused. He dragged it out of my body and said I should cooperate. I refused again. He asked his friend for the gun threatening that if I don’t cooperate, they’ll shoot me.
“His friend took several naked pictures of me. Both of them abandoned me in the hotel room afterwards. I asked him almost a week after what he wanted to do with my photos and he told me that it was the beginning.
“The following Saturday, he threatened to put the photos online unless I paid N80,000 in order to delete them. I paid N10,000 with a promise to pay the balance afterwards.
“After a week, his friend called me with another option for me to pay him N40,000 and a night with him. I refused. He threatened that I would hear from them very soon.”
The suspect along with some of the exhibits recovered from him (toy gun, mobile phones containing the nude photos of the ladies have been transferred to the State Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Department (SCIID), Panti for further investigations.