Old Girl That Impersonated Wizkid
by Emmanuel Lala
Wizkid has been in the news after he was blasted
for collecting money for a show and failing to show
up at the event. It appears that it wasn’t Wizkid who
actually collected money from the show promoter
as the Lagos State Police Command have revealed
that they have apprehended an impostor who posed
to be Wizkid’s manager, Sunday Are and conned
several show promoters.
According to the Police, the impostor defrauded
people of over $65,000, equivalent of about
N12.9million. Wizkid is represented in Nigeria by
Sunday Are ‘s ‘List Entertainment’ while his
management in UK is Disturbing London led by
Tinie Tempah.
Sunday Are denied knowledge of the show while
Wizkid kept mum on the issue as well. Instead, he
is said to have complained to the police
commissioner that someone had been
impersonating him and collecting money for shows.
The police swung into action and the 19-year-old
suspect, identified as Ifeoma Nelly was arrested.
She is said to be a student of 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, so that Wizkid would go to Australia
to perform.
The suspect was said to use to collect payment via
electronic, but because she was desperate to get
her hands on the $25,000, she decided to this time,
meet the Australian one on one. She reportedly
came in company of two friends, a lady and a guy.
Unknown to her, policemen had been planted in the
hotel. So, when she walked into the hotel with her
friends, thinking she was on the verge of meeting
the Australian and sailing away $25,000, she
walked into the waiting arms of policemen and Are.
Revealing how the suspect was arrested, Are said
the lady said she had been posing on Facebook and
defrauding people for three years, using Wizkid .
When asked if she had other members assisting
her, Nelly insisted that she was the only one
running the show.
“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,” Sunday Are said.
Are said they had to start refunding money to
different victims when the nefarious activities of the
suspect became embarrassing.
“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, we had 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.
Meanwhile, we didn’t know about those
shows.”
Are added that the lady, not only used Wizkid ’s
name to open the Facebook accounts, but also used
Wizkid’s name to register the phone she was using.
“Whenever someone calls her or she calls
someone, its Wizkid’s name that would show.
True caller shows Wizkid. We need everybody
to help us fight this. We’ve started working
towards doing something about the fake
accounts.”
Recounting how she was arrested, Are said he and
Wizkid went to Zambia for a show.
some people in Australia. The caller said he wanted
to know if he was speaking with Sunday Are ,
Wizkid’s manager. The Australian said that he had
been speaking with someone, pretending to be Are.
The Australian said that he had almost concluded
negotiation for Wizkid to come to Australia to
perform and was just about to pay $25,000 part
payment, when he heard that Wizkid was in Zambia.
The Australian said it was quite unlikely for Wizkid
to be in Zambia, while his manager would be in
Lagos. The Australian sourced Are’s phone number
and called; the real Are picked.
“They said someone wanted to collect money
from them in Lagos, Nigeria, for Wizkid to
come and perform. They now found out that I
was in Zambia. They now wondered how
possible it was for Wizkid’s manager to be in
Zambia, while Wizkid was in Lagos. They
managed to get my number and called me.
I planned with them on how to make this
arrest. I talked to them to convince the
suspect to come and collect cash in a hotel in
Lagos. That was how I managed to arrest her.
“She came along with two friends. They were
two ladies and a guy. She looked like a guy.
It took us three to four hours before we could
believe she was a lady. She wore native
clothes and spotted low cut, like she is
Sunday Are . She wore Rolex wrist watch. She
bought clothes for the lady that came with her
because that one said she didn’t have any
clothes good enough to wear to come and
collect the money. “The arrest happened in a
hotel in Lagos.
I planted policemen inside the hotel room. The
people gave the lady an Australian number,
saying the Australian didn’t have a Nigerian
number. Everything looked genuine. The show
was to be in Australia, the phone number was
an Australian number and the man she was
speaking with, was a white man. But the man
was actually in Australia, directing them to
come to the hotel to collect cash. They
entered the room and we arrested them,” he
concluded.
