The Nigerian Army has raised alarm over the growing impersonation of the Chief of Army Staff (COAS), Lieutenant General Olufemi Oluyede, on all social media platforms.
The Service also stressed these imposters have continued to perpetrate the mischief using the official portrait of the COAS as profile picture on their various social media platforms
Informing the public of the ugly development, the Director Army Public Relations, Major General Onyema Nwachukwu, in a statement said: “The Nigerian Army has been inundated with complaints of increasing number of imposters, claiming to be the Chief of Army Staff (COAS), Lieutenant General Olufemi Oluyede, on various social media platforms.
“The imposters have continued to perpetrate this mischief using the official portrait of the COAS, as profile picture on their various social media platforms.
“It is imperative to state that this is not the first time imposters have attempted to impersonate the person of the COAS on social media platforms to dupe unsuspecting members of the public in one form or the other.
“A new trend observed however, is the fixing of virtual meetings on zoom, WhatsApp, Facebook and other online engagements with demand that participants share specific numbers which appear on their screens during such meetings with which the imposters then engage individually with the participants and subsequently defraud them”.
The Nigerian Army, he said has identified over 23 mobile numbers used by these fraudsters to defraud the public using the name of COAS.
While the Nigerian Army, like other sister services of the Armed Forces, have peculiar ways of communication known to all officers and soldiers of the Nigerian Army, members of the public must be wary of the danger posed by these imposters.
Nwachukwu urged the public to refrain from engaging in any online meeting organised on social media platforms especially using the official portrait of the COAS as the display picture.
He further enjoined the public to report such mobile numbers used to fix such virtual meetings through the Nigerian Army toll-free call centre number 193 for appropriate follow-up actions.
The Army also entreats personnel and non-personnel alike to be circumspect in engaging in any social media online, virtual meeting, or call, as official means of communication with the hierarchy of Nigerian Army.
