The man, whose name was given as Afolabi Samad, was arrested with the 16 trainees at the academy at Peace Estate, Lokogoma, a suburb of Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) which he was said to have rented for the sum of N3 million per annum.

They were arrested in the early morning of Thursday in a sting operation by the operatives of the Abuja zonal command of the commission following intelligence gathered about the activities of the academy.

It was gathered that Samad, who is an internet fraudster, opened the academy in a three-bedroom flat and was training young men in the art of defrauding people in the apartment which he was said to have rented for the sum of N3 million per annum.

According to a statement by the anti graft agency on Thursday, at the point of their arrest, items recovered from him and the trainees included two vehicles: a Lexus SUV and a Toyota Highlander SUV; laptops, phones of various brands, charms, other incriminating documents, among others.