YABATECH Graduate Arrested For Blackmailing Veteran Singer, Salawa Abeni, With Her Nude Photos

By Edna Wande Last updated May 31, 2020

19 years old yabatech student arrested for blackmailing Salawa Abeni

Operatives of Rapid Response Squad (RRS) have arrested a 19-year-old Olufowoke Oladunjiye Emmanuel in Lagos for blackmailing veteran singer, Queen Salawa Abeni with her ‘nude photos’.

The suspect had consistently threatened to put up the musician’s nude photographs on social media if she refused to pay some money.

Queen Abeni however beat him to it by releasing the nude pictures herself in April and announced that she was being threatened.

Afterwards, the Commissioner of Police, Hakeem Odumosu directed the Commander, Rapid Response Squad, DCP Olatunji Disu to fish out the suspect.

He was arrested at Brentfield Avenue, Peace Estate, Magboro, Ogun State after monitoring him for three days.

Explaining how he got the photos, Emmanuel, who is a 2017/2018 Electrical Engineering graduate from YABATECH, said he found a memory card containing the photos of the Waka Queen on the floor in YABATECH in November 2019.

After downloading the images, he decided to contact her after getting her number on the internet.

He narrated;

On 1st of April, 2020, I chatted her up and also called her after sending a few of the photos to her online. My intention was to negotiate with her for few bucks and for me to destroy the photographs.

I thought everything was going on fine until the following day when I heard the news of the blackmail over the radio. I was with my mother. She was even cursing the blackmailer unknown to her that I was the brain behind it.

Emmanuel added that;

I immediately sneaked out, destroyed the memory card and threw my mobile phone and SIM card into a nearby wetland in Magboro. Since then, I never mentioned it to anyone and called Madam Salawa Abeni about it again.

Commenting on the arrest, the Lagos state Commissioner for Police, CP Hakeem Odumosu, stated that no individual would be allowed to commit such a crime in Lagos.

He advised guardians to monitor their wards, emphasizing that the internet is a fertile ground for opportunities.