Lagos – The Airport Police Command has arrested a 20-year-old man, Essien Emmanuel Akpama, over allegations of defrauding multiple victims in the United States of more than N1 billion (over $1 million) through a celebrity romance scam.
ASP Mohammed Adeola, Police Public Relations Officer of the Airport Police Command, stated in a release on Tuesday that the arrest followed months of intelligence-led surveillance.
“The Nigeria Police Force, Airport Police Command, in its sustained efforts to combat transnational crimes and prevent the use of Nigerian airports as escape routes for criminal elements, has arrested a notorious celebrity scam and romance fraud suspect,” the statement read.
Akpama was apprehended on January 5, 2026, while attempting to board a flight out of Lagos. Investigations revealed that he relocated from Calabar, Cross River State, to Lagos in February 2024, where he orchestrated multiple fraudulent schemes.
According to the police, one of the scams involved a 47-year-old woman in the US, who was deceived into transferring $1 million under the pretext of purchasing property in Florida for an orphanage.
Akpama also allegedly defrauded a 70-year-old woman in the US of N25,709,400 (about $18,000) through purchases of gift cards, high-end mobile phones, and computer equipment shipped to Nigeria under his direction.
Recovered items include a MacBook Pro 14-inch, an iPhone 17 Pro Max, two Google Pixel 10 Pro XL devices, and one Google Pixel 10 Pro, collectively valued at N8,141,367.
Police said the suspect posed as a 60-year-old orthopaedic surgeon working with the United Nations in Nigeria to convince victims that the devices were needed for secure communications.
Commissioner of Police, Airport Police Command, CP Ogunbode Olufunke, emphasized the importance of intelligence-driven operations.
“The Command will continue to deploy intelligence-driven operations to detect, disrupt, and dismantle criminal networks operating within and around Nigeria’s aviation ecosystem,” she said.
The case has been transferred to the Nigeria Police Force Special Fraud Unit for further investigation. Akpama will be arraigned in court upon completion of the inquiry.
