Four citizens of Nigeria were detained by agents of the National Bureau of Investigation Cebu Division Office (NBI CEBDO) in the Philippines for reportedly forging government IDs and other documents to be utilised for digital scams, said the authorities on Wednesday, June 15.
The NBI agents investigated in a house around a subdivision in Barangay Marigondon, Lapu-Lapu City, at 3 pm on Monday, June 13 and captured four suspects.
The suspects were identified by the police as Tosen Samuel Oguntoye, Augustine Onyekachi Nkowachi, Christopher Okeke and Chubuike Joseph Nwokoro.
These four will face charges of several counts of the forging of documents.
The operation was held after the girlfriend of one of these accused strived for the office’s help as she was allegedly influenced by the suspects to ease the production of fake identification under her real name.
After acquiring the fake IDs, she was forced by the suspects to open many bank accounts that would be utilised as means to ease transactions linked to a digital scam.
NBI-CEBDO stated that the accused initiated this operation in April this year, although they were not provided ATM cards by the banks yet, stated Agent Atty. Niño Rodriguez.
As per the investigation, the fake IDs of the girlfriend were printed somewhere in Colon in Cebu City.
Rodriguez stated this wasn’t the only time that there was a problem with the forging of IDs in Colon. He expressed the police have already run operations there.
The agents captured many falsified government IDs like BIR, Philhealth, LTO driver’s licenses, NBI clearances, Philpost IDs, company IDs and PRC IDs, among others.
Several photos utilised in these detained fake IDs were from Filipinos, but the names and details were fictional.
Rodriguez stated, “Seguro said they met on dating sites, and once they get the faith of Filipina, they would ask them to open bank accounts using their pictures but not their names.”
Agent-in-charge, Arnel Pura, stated they would be connecting with the embassy of Nigeria in Manila to understand the backgrounds of these suspects.
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