‘I take nude pictures of female church members to extort money from them’

A church protocol officer allegedly in the habit of luring church members, taking their nude photographs and using same to blackmail them in exchange for money has been arrested in Lagos. The suspect, Victor Duru, a Madonna University drop-out, was arrested in Surulere, Lagos, last Thursday after repeatedly blackmailing his church member and girlfriend. The […]

A church protocol officer allegedly in the habit of luring church members, taking their nude photographs and using same to blackmail them in exchange for money has been arrested in Lagos.

The suspect, Victor Duru, a Madonna University drop-out, was arrested in Surulere, Lagos, last Thursday after repeatedly blackmailing his church member and girlfriend.

The lady, name withheld, whose nude pictures Duru and a friend were alleged to have taken at gunpoint in a hotel in Ijeshatedo, Lagos, reported her experience to the Rapid Response Squad headquarters.

The police said they investigated Duru, 23, a protocol officer with a new generation church based in Oregun, Ikeja, Lagos, and discovered that he had been using the nude photographs of the girl to blackmail her for money.

It was also discovered that the suspect was allegedly keeping the nude photographs of other girls, which he took in hotels and his apartment in Ijeshatedo.

Duru was also believed to have laced the drink of another girl with a sleeping drug, as the photographs obtained from one of his mobile phones revealed.

Confessing, the suspect told the police, “She was my girlfriend. We are same church members. We have been dating for almost two years. We were having break-up issues so I invited her to a hotel in Ijeshatedo. I excused myself and invited my friend, Frank Obinna, to meet me in the hotel. Obinna and I planned this together.

“The gun was a toy. He entered the hotel room and held the lady at gun point. I told her to co-operate and stripped her naked her for Obinna to take her pictures. We took seven different shots of her in the nude with my phone. I discharged her that day. This was in September.”

“Early October 2019, I called her to give me N80,000 or I would throw the nude photographs online. She was only able to offer me N10,000, which she transferred into my brother’s account.”

“Last week, Obinna called her again and requested for N40,000. She promised to send something. She used to assist me financially before the problem started”.

Duru, it was gathered, attempted to escape from police custody in handcuffs.

The victim, in her statement to the police, alleged that she thought Duru’s friend was a waiter when he entered their hotel room.

She said, “he brought out his phone and I asked my boyfriend what was going on but he           slapped me, telling me to remove the blanket covering me. I refused, but he dragged it away from               my  body, telling me to co-operate. I refused                 again. He asked his friend for the gun,                           threatening that I cooperate.

“His friend took many shots of me naked. Both of them then abandoned me in the hotel room.

I asked him almost a week after what he wanted to do with my photos and he told me that it was the beginning. The following Saturday, he threatened to put the photos online unless I pay N80,000 for him to delete them. I paid N10,000, with a promise to pay the balance afterwards.

“After a week, his friend called me, telling me to pay him N40,000 and a night with him. I refused. He threatened that I would hear from them very soon”.

A police source said that some of the ladies whose nude photographs were found on Duru’s phone declined to push for a case when contacted.