Romance scam investigators have arrested a 20-year-old man accused of masterminding a large-scale romance and celebrity fraud that allegedly siphoned more than ₦1 billion from victims in the United States. The suspect was intercepted at a Lagos airport while attempting to flee the country.
Police identified the suspect as Essien Emmanuel Akpama, who was arrested on January 5, 2026, following months of intelligence-driven surveillance. According to the Airport Police Command, Akpama was tracked after credible information linked him to multiple transnational fraud operations.
Investigators said Akpama, who previously lived in Calabar, relocated to Lagos on February 23, 2024, where he allegedly coordinated several online scams. Police said the operations targeted elderly and middle-aged victims in the U.S. through carefully crafted romance and celebrity impersonation schemes.
In one case, authorities alleged that the suspect deceived a 47-year-old American woman into transferring $1 million. The funds were reportedly solicited under the guise of purchasing property in Florida for an orphanage and routed through a cryptocurrency scheme known as “BullRun 2.0.”
Police also disclosed that a 70-year-old U.S. victim was allegedly defrauded of ₦25.7 million, about $18,000, through gift cards and purchases of expensive mobile phones and computer equipment. These items were allegedly shipped to Nigeria at the suspect’s direction.
Items recovered during the arrest include a MacBook Pro 14-inch, an iPhone 17 Pro Max, and three Google Pixel devices, valued at over ₦8.1 million. Investigators said Akpama posed online as a 60-year-old orthopedic surgeon working with the United Nations in Nigeria to gain victims’ trust and justify the need for “secure communications.”
The Commissioner of Police, Airport Police Command, Ogunbode Olufunke, said the arrest reflects sustained efforts to prevent criminals from using Nigerian airports as escape routes. She stressed that intelligence-led operations would continue to disrupt and dismantle criminal networks within the aviation space.
The case has been transferred to the Nigeria Police Force Special Fraud Unit for further investigation, and the suspect is expected to be charged to court after investigations are concluded. The arrest comes amid intensified airport security operations following recent seizures of undeclared foreign currencies and arrests linked to transnational crime.
