19-Year-Old Impersonating Wizkid Arrested For Fraud By The Nigerian Police

A 19-year-old girl who was impersonating Star Boy Records boss and international music sensation, Wizkid, on social media has landed in Police net in Lagos after defrauding unsuspecting people of over $65,000, about 12.9million in Naira.

The suspect, identified as Ifeoma Nelly is said to be a studying Industrial Chemistry at the Delta State University. She was arrested through the combined efforts of Wizkid’s Manager, Mr. Sunday Are, policemen from Lagos and an Australian when she came to Lagos to collect part payment of $25,000 from some Australians at a hotel in Lagos who wanted to book the services of Wizkid for him to perform for them live in Australia.

Miss Ifeoma Nelly

Nelly had been receiving payment via electronic means but due to desperation, decided to appear in person to collect the $25,000 from the Australian. She came with two friends, a lady and a guy.

Unknown to her, policemen had been planted in the hotel and were waiting to take her into custody. When she walked into the hotel with her friends, she was immediately nabbed and carted away.

Mr Sunday Are sitting with Wizkid

Explaining how it all went down, Mr Are said the lady alleged that she had been posing as Wizkid on Facebook and had gotten away with defrauding people for three years. When asked if she had other members assisting her, Nelly insisted that she was the only one running the show.Are said, “She has collected money from different people. If you don’t have evidence against her, she would deny it. But if you show her evidence, she would tell you the truth. There was the case of the $53,000, which we had to refund to the owner.

“She confirmed that she was the one who collected it. There was another payment of $12,500 from Germany. The Germany people sent details of how they paid the money to her. She couldn’t deny it.

”Are noted that due to the scrupulous work of the suspect, Wizkid’s camp had to refund money to clients when the situation was becoming embarrassing.

The manager said: “We had been having problems with different clients because of this. We keep refunding all the money. It was an issue. When it became serious, wehad to refund the money to victims. Some people will just go, write in papers that Wikzid disappointed them. They would say Wizkid and his manager collected money and didn’t come to perform.