Man who uses Ortom’s name for fraud spends Xmas in police net

A middle aged man identified as Victor Adule had to celebrate the Christmas in police net in Makurdi, Benue State capital for impersonating the Benue State governor’s younger brother Mike Ortom.

Adule was said to have last weekend persistently called the provost of the state College of Education in Oju, Mr Godwin Oga, for assistance pretending to be the younger brother of the state governor.

The suspect was said to have travelled to Oju, pretended to be a brother to governor Ortom, demanded unspecified amount to enable him pay for bags of rice meant for Christmas gift.

It was gathered that due to unrelenting call from Victor Adule to the College Provost, this prompted him (the provost) to direct the college Public Relations Officer, (PRO), Mr Ada Brown, to visit ‘Mr Mike Ortom’  for confirmation, which later discovered as a case of 419.

Consequent upon the discovery,  that the governor’s younger brother, Mike Ortom and the PRO, Ada Brown swung into action leading to the arrest of Victor Adule.

The governor’s younger brother however said that the arrested man had earlier approached him few days ago for assistance where he (Ortom) gave him N8,000 to attend an interview in Lagos.

Narrating this to newsmen, Mike Ortom, said that he had to arrest Adule whom he suspected might have used the family name to defraud unsuspecting members of the public.

According to him, ‘Ortom’s name is not a name to be dragged in the mud, the name is higher than gold, we need to jealously guide the name, considering the sensitive position our brother (governor Ortom) occupies today.

Benue police command through its spokesperson, ASP Moses Yamu, confirmed the arrest adding that the suspect is in the custody of the command.