A Nigerian man accused of swindling thousands of pesos
from a Filipina woman he met on a mobile dating app has been arrested in
Las Piñas City, Philippines.
Agents of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI)
arrested the suspect, Innocent Uchenna Nkwoka, with aliases Steve Edward
and Agulu Prince, and his supposed female accomplice, Irene Lee Okoro,
with alias Jackie Pascual, last January 17, the bureau announced today,
Tuesday, January 22.
Another accomplice, a certain Ana Fe Sandoval, remains at large.
The NBI said it acted on a complaint of a woman who
alleged she was blackmailed by one Agulu Prince, whom she met on Tinder
in February 2018 and with whom she was supposedly engaged to by August.
The complainant, who was not named in the NBI's
statement, alleged that with encouragement from Agulu Prince, she sent
more than P50,000 to Sandoval, who claimed she was from the US Embassy,
for the processing of her fiancée visa and other fees.
The NBI narrated that the complainant and her family
went to the Ninoy Aquino International Airport last December to fetch
Agulu Prince but that she was told by a self-described Customs employee
that he had been held at the Cebu airport for carrying $800,000 into the
country.
The complainant "sensed she was being duped" when she
was asked to send P25,000 through a money remittance service for her
fiance's release.
When she refused, Agulu Prince allegedly sent her a
message demanding the amount and threatened he will leak her nude photos
if she did not comply.
This prompted the complainant to send P10,000 to
Sandoval, the NBI said. Agulu Prince allegedly demanded money from the
complainant and dangled the same threat over her at other times, which
made her turn to the NBI.
NBI surveillance operations led them to Pascual, who
allegedly claimed the money sent by the complainant. Pascual told the
investigators that she will meet Agulu Prince in Las Piñas, where
operatives arrested him and recovered the mobile phone where the
complainant's nude photos were stored.
The arrested duo face charges for swindling and robbery
extortion in relation to the Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012 and for
violation of the Anti-Photo and Video Voyeurism Act of 2009.
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