Fake VOA Journalist was nabbed after demanding N5,000 for interview

Edo State Police Command has arrested one Yakubu Farouk for posing as the Niger Delta correspondent of the Hausa service of the Voice of America.

 

Farouk, who hails from Nasarawa State, was arrested by officers of the Oba Market Police Division on February 3, after demanding N5,000 from the Chairman of the Hausa community in Edo State, Alhaji Badamasi Saleh, for interview.Farouk said that he had told his victim that he was a freelancer with the international medium, after he was sacked from a local medium, Nigerian Democrat, in Kaduna for allegedly embezzling an advert payment of N300,000.

“Actually, I came as a journalist and they discovered that I was not working with the medium I claimed to be working with. I have not really duped anybody; this is the first man I spoke with and I was caught.”

But Saleh told our correspondent, that the 35-year-old 2006 graduate of Mass Communication, from the Benue State Polytechnic, had arranged an interview with him on the 2015 general elections.

He also explained that he became suspicious of Farouk, when he demanded N5,000 after the interview and asked for a ride to the Peoples Democratic Party state secretariat, where he intended to interview a candidate of the party.

The Hausa community leader said he realised that he was being swindled and drove Farouk to the police station instead.

He said, “

So, on our way to the PDP secretariat, I called the reporter covering Niger Delta, Lamid Abubakar, who told me to get him (Farouk) arrested and hand him over to the police because he was not a VOA employee.
“That was exactly what I did because I have never come across any journalist interviewing and demanding money from me.