By Jubal Kanayo
On June 10, 2020, Social Media was awash with news that Ramoni Akanni, known to his known to his 2.4 million Instagram followers as ‘Hushpuppi’ had been arrested and detained for money-laundering, cyber fraud, hacking and scamming.
He did not go alone. He was arrested with 11 others, chief amongst them being Woodberry. After a long hunt, a combined team of the FBI, Interpol and Dubai police raided the apartment of the 38-year-old as he slept, seizing more than 150 million dirham (£30 million).
Many followers had salivated over the Hushpuppi’s almost-obscene love for Gucci and his arrogant flambouyance on Social Media. Little did they know that he was using the ostentatious display in draw in potential victims, who thought they were doing business with a “rich guy”.
Infact, at some point, the Hushpuppi didn’t need to go legal; his bromance with lots of male footballers and celebrities would have fooled everyone and legitimised him in the eyes of many (if he was not already). He lit Malaysia on fire and turned it to his base. The FBI watched.
Makes one recall the case of Invictus Okeke. He was so deceptive that he was respected by Forbes.
Officers say they found the email addresses of nearly two million victims on dozens of phones, computers and hard drives. More than a dozen luxury cars were seized in the raid along with suitcases full of cash.
they recovered documents evidencing fraud “on a global scale” worth 1.6 billion dirham (£352 million).
The operation, codenamed ‘Fox Hunt 2’, came after months of investigation into the group’s activities. Mr Al Jallaf said that detectives in the anti-cybercrime task force were able to track down gang members through false accounts they had created on social media.
Abbas, whose arrest reportedly came after he added a white Rolls Royce to his fleet of luxury cars, once posted a video of himself throwing $100 bills as confetti at a wedding.
It is understood that a large proportion of the alleged victims reside in the US, but Hushpuppi had his tentacles in Europe, America and back home. He claims to be a property developer but, thank God for sckeptical Nigerians who never believe everything, many doubted the authenticity of his over-night transformation.
Does his action and those of many others represent Nigerians? Do these acts show us up as a people or negate our culture as a hardworking people?
Hushpuppi did claim at one time, that his posts were to inspire people.
Well, he has inspired many to join his forbidden trade.
At least, the hefty count charges against his paints a vivid picture for anyone involved in fraud across international borders.
While Abike Dabiri will have a hard time convincing the rest of the world to take us seriously and continue doing business with us, let us wonder about the Hushpuppi in all of us.
Many of the young people who thronged his pages and drooled over his pictures with line like “God when…?” and begged for ‘give-aways’ endlessly have been utterly misled and may never find their way back, until they uproot the evil seed he has planted in them.
Many became popular overnight just by appearing for 30 seconds in Hushpuppi’s video. Others flocked to them to ask how they did it and, boom, they became resource persons on ‘how to make it’. His videos got retweeted and it was passed own the line that so-and-so could get you to Dubai to join the ring.
If you are hailing Hushpuppi for being smart, if you cart away the commonwealth of Nigerians, divert money meant for projects, dupe church members, do money rituals, engage in ‘one-chance’, do Yahoo-Yahoo, kidnap and abduct for ransom, look for all means to get rich quick, engage in G-plus, rob with a pen or gun, sit on employees’ contracts, allowances and salaries, divert clients’ money from your seat as a bank teller or any activity which puts/throws anyone in harm/into sorrow, there is a Hushpuppi in you because you love the get-rich-overnight gig.
Hushpuppi had gullible minds at his disposal and he got them in their droves. Anyone who dared criticise his source of wealth got called unprintable names. He became a micro-celebrity, showing many that you need not have a job to become a superstar. A sweet-mouth, a very influential lens (CNN, Forbes, millions of Instagram followers, a fine pose before a camera, a fine smile, a braless pose, a pose in your boxer shorts, a sculpted body, a feature story by the local media etc). Everything has been democratised, even stardom.
The blatant freedom of expression served as a guise for fraudsters to exploit gullible users either emotionally or financially. Welcome to a world where you no longer need Forbes’s microphone or CNN’s camera to become a celebrity. You can become a superstar even if you don’t have a job. All you need is a phone, a camera, a sweet mouth, and a social media network where you can create attractive personas with your “bodyguard of lies.” All you need is a cameo in one of Hushpuppi’s videos, and your social media visibility skyrockets.
Social media, like every other useful tool in life, can be abused and used for unethical purposes. Social media’s comparative metrics unintentionally serves as a perfect catalyst that fuels greed, jealousy and desperation. Social media is a jungle where people hunt for likes, shares, comments, and followers. To achieve this aim, many tell brazen lies and fall into the trap of ostentatious display of things that they can’t afford. It’s a rat race. Every time you jump on social media, learn to use your lens of skepticism. You don’t have to believe everything because it’s a collage of edited lives.
We need to be socially-conscious of the people we are and understand our unrivalled need for social awareness and the fact that “this kind goeth not out by fasting and prayer”. It needs a great degree of national awareness and consciousness. But you know how it is, Hushpuppi is not the last – just as he was not the first – of the fraudsters. We have a nursery full of them. They are breeding. We should start thinking of catching our own thieves; not grooming them.
