Metro
Man blackmails Female Church Members with Nude Pictures, Arrested
A church protocol officer, Victor Duru, 23, has been arrested by the police for allegedly luring his female church members to hotels and taking their nude pictures, which he used to blackmail them into giving him money.
Duru, who is a Madonna University dropout, was said to have blackmailed not only his girlfriends in the church, but also other girls, who were not members of the church, before he was apprehended by the police in Surulere, Lagos State, last Thursday.
One of his girlfriends, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Duru took her nude pictures and those of another of his girlfriends at a hotel in Ijeshatedo at gunpoint.
She added that she had to call the Rapid Response Squad headquarters to report her experience.
It was learnt that Duru, who is based in Oregun, Ikeja, was investigated and discovered to have been using the nude pictures of the victim to blackmail her into giving him money.
He was also alleged to be keeping the nude pictures of other girls, whom he lodged in hotels and his apartment in Ijeshatedo.
A source added that the suspect obtained the nude pictures of the victims at gunpoint with the assistance of an accomplice.
It was gathered that there was a growing suspicion that Duru also laced the drink of another girl with a sleeping drug as the photographs obtained from one of his mobile phones revealed.
Duru, in his confessional statement, stated, “The victim, who reported me was my girlfriend. We are members of 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 planned this together.
“The gun was a toy gun. Obinna entered the hotel room and held the lady at gunpoint. I told her to cooperate and strip naked for Obinna to take her pictures. We took seven different nude shots of her with my phone. I discharged her that day. That was in September.
“By early October, I called her to give me N80,000 or I would post the nude photographs on the Internet. 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 N40,000. She promised to send something. She was a wonderful girl, who had been assisting me before the problem started. On many occasions, she had assisted me financially.”
It was learnt that Duru attempted to escape from custody in handcuffs, while the police were trying to arrest his accomplice, Obinna, in Ijeshatedo.
According to the victim’s statement, she thought Duru’s friend was a waiter when he entered the hotel room.
She said, “He brought out his phone and I asked my boyfriend what was going on, but he slapped me and told me to remove the blanket covering my body.
“I refused. He yanked it off my body and told me to cooperate. I refused again. He asked his friend for the gun, threatening that if I didn’t cooperate, they would waste me.
“His friend took several shots of my nudity. Both of them abandoned me in the hotel room afterwards.
“I asked him almost a week after what he wanted to do with my pictures and he told me that was the beginning.
“The following Saturday, he threatened to post the pictures on the Internet unless I paid N80,000 in order to delete them. I paid N10,000 with a promise to pay the balance later.
“After a week, his friend called and offered me another option of paying him N40,000 and a night out with him. I refused. He threatened that I would hear from them very soon.”
The source noted that some of the ladies, whose nude pictures were found on Duru’s mobile phones, when contacted by the police to come forward as prosecution witnesses, declined.
The suspect, along with some of the exhibits recovered from him, has been transferred to the State Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Department, Panti, for further investigation.
The police boss in charge of the state Command, Assistant Inspector-General Zubairu Muazu, asked parents to keep watch over their children and know the kind of company they keep.
The Punch
Broadcasting company Multichoice has jacked up the prices of its offerings in Nigeria four months after its last increment.
The company reviewed prices in its packages across the board. The new prices will take effect from May 1, 2024.
With the latest price hike, the DStv Premium package increased from N29,500 to N37,000. Similarly, the DStv Compact+ went up from N19,800 to N25,000 while the Compact package increased from N12,500 to N15,700.
The Comfam package moved from N7,400 to N9,300. Yanga package moved up from 4,200 to N5,100 while Padi package increased from N2,950 to N3,600. HDPVR was increased from N4,000 to N5,000, the Access Fees package from N4,000 to N5,000, and XtraView moved from N4,000 to N5,000.
Meanwhile, the Gotv Supa+ package moved from N12,500 to N15,700, Supa package from N7,600 to N9,600, and Max package from N5,700 to N7,200.
While the Jolli package was jacked up from N3,950 to N4,850, the Jinja package moved from N2,700 to N3,300, and Smallie package from N1,300 to N1,575.
It will be recalled that the company implemented an upward review of prices in December 2023, days after announcing a $72m loss in its financial statement for the third quarter of the year.
Checks on the company’s reviewed price list then showed a 20 per cent per cent hike in the company’s packages across the board.
A former spokesperson of the Atiku/Okowa presidential campaign, Daniel Bwala, has said the girl being bullied by her classmates in a viral video, is not his daughter, as originally speculated.
While commending the girl in thr video for her restraint and calmness, Bwala explained that the girl in the video is not his daughter, noting that he doesn’t have any children studying in the said school. He however, informed that if it were one of his children, the scenario would’ve been different as there would’ve been a fight in self-defense.
He stated that he had reported the incident to the necessary authorities to investigate the matter and give justice to the abused girl. He noted that when contacted, the school authorities claimed that the two girls were minors and should be treated as such.
“My attention has been drawn to a viral video circulating on all social media platforms alleging that my daughter was bullied or assaulted. For the record, the young girl in the video is not my daughter, I do not know her, nor do I have any of my children studying in that school. Whilst the young girl in the video showed extreme decorum and restraint (and should be commended), if it were any of my children, the scenario would not go without a fight in the exercise of self-defense,” be said.
A video has emerged showing a student, who has been identified as the daughter of former spokesperson of the Atiku/Okowa presidential campaign, Mr. Daniel Bwala.
The less than two minutes clip, which has gone viral on social media showed a student unleashing series of slaps in cohort with other students, who did nothing to help the bullied student. Among the students was a male student, who was heard saying ‘I spoilt her relationship’, and another, a female, who queried, ‘can’t you talk?’
According to the video, the girl, known as Namitra Bwala, received a total of 18 slaps to her face, choked once on the mouth and pushed once, at both sitting and standing positions. Her assailant, who was also identified as Maryam Hassan, was asking ‘who broke my heart’ while she released the slaps.
Releasing the video on X, formerly Twitter, a user, @omolomo_o, called the attention of the politician-father, who returned to the All Progressives Congress (APC) after Atiku lost the 2023 election, and demand that he takes action, and claim justice for the molested girl.
However, the school, where the incident occurred, Lead British International School, Abuja, has said they on top of the matter, and has reached out to the families involved.
In a statement, with the subject, Addressing the Incident of Bullying at Lead British International School Abuja, LBIS prevailed on the social public to desist from further sharing the offensive video so as to reduce the trauma those involved are going at the moment.
“LBIS appeals to members of the public, especially citizen journalists on social media, to refrain from further circulating the horrendous video of the incident, to protect the minors involved and their families,” the statement read in part.
