The National Cybercrime Center of the Nigeria Police Force has arrested three persons alleged to be behind the popular microblogging platform, Gistlover.
The arrest followed threat to life acting on a petition by one Mrs Seye Oladejo.
This is contained in a statement released by the spokesperson of the Nigeria Police Force, ACP Olumuyiwa Adejobi.
He said the suspects, namely Adebukola Kolapo, Nnedum Micheal Somtomchukwu and Isaac Akpokighe, all males of ages 27, 25 and 30, respectively, are members of a syndicate called Gistlover Family, responsible for the daily running of the Gistlover blog, a microblogging platform.
The Police spokesperson noted that the blog is known for “cyberstalking, incitement, blackmail, and sundry, which has over the years been a cause for public outcry.”
The statement read; “Upon arrest, the suspects revealed their various degrees of involvement in the conspiracy, corroborating the already available overwhelming evidences.
“The first suspect Adebukola Kolapo a.k.a Omo oba Gistlover was responsible for the creation of over 80 per cent of the Gistlover pages thereby lending his digital footprint for the perpetration of the aforementioned criminal act.
“Being on the pay roll of the said platform and having enjoyed incentives like car gifts and monies, Adebukola was saddled with the responsibility of scouting, editing and captioning contents including the cyber stalking post made against the complainant, Hon. and Dr. Mrs Oluseyi Oladejo. Adebukola has also contributed in laundering monies gotten from the illegal scheme through various means.
The statement added that more developments, digital Forensic analysis led to the recovery of eight (8) gist lover pages created on the instruction of the head of the syndicate by Adebukola, and wallet addresses used in laundering these monies.
According to the statement, “The Second suspect, One Nnedum Somtochukwu also shared in the conspiracy wherein at every point the page was taken down for certain infractions and violation of policies at the instance of reports from Law Enforcement Agencies, the suspect using his platform will by all means redirect traffic to the new page, helping the blog to evade sanctions.”
