The accounts, which detail how prisoners have access to mobile phones, bank accounts, and even the ability to meet visitors in private for illicit activities, have raised serious concerns about the integrity of the correctional system.
Multiple victims have come forward to expose the shocking level of fraud, blackmail, and corruption allegedly taking place inside Okere Prison in Warri, Delta State.
The accounts, which detail how prisoners have access to mobile phones, bank accounts, and even the ability to meet visitors in private for illicit activities, have raised serious concerns about the integrity of the correctional system.
One of the victims, who shared her harrowing experience with SaharaReporters, recounted how she unknowingly fell in love with an inmate at Okere Prison after meeting him on Facebook in 2019. The inmate, identified as Perez Ekiyor, convinced her he was a free man.
Through months of chatting and video calls, their relationship deepened to the extent that she opened a bank account in her name for him and registered an SMS card using her personal details.
The situation took a dark turn when she discovered suspiciously large sums of money flowing into the account—amounts she had never seen before. Realising she might be caught in a fraudulent scheme, she moved the money and attempted to sever all ties with him.
However, the prisoner retaliated by leaking their private conversations and nude photos online, leading to a period of emotional distress and social embarrassment.
According to her, looking back, it felt like she was under a spell.
“It was only after I started attending church that my eyes were opened,” she revealed.
She said: “I met a guy in prison in 2019 on Facebook—I never knew he was a prisoner at Okere.
“We started chatting and doing video calls privately, and we became lovers to the extent that we shared our nudes. I opened an account in my name for him and registered an SMS card for him, using my details.
“We met in the prison after I fell deeply in love with him. I learned so many bad things from him. We even had sex because he paid the warders to allow us to have some private moments.
“One day, I went through the bank statements and was shocked to see money I had never seen before in my life in the account. I moved the money from the account.
“Afterward, I went to the bank to resolve the issue concerning the large amounts of money moving through the account. I blocked him everywhere, including the line I got for him, and also broke up with him.
“He blackmailed me, dropping all our nude chats online. It took the grace of God to help me out of that issue. Till date, I avoid online dating and even prisoners.
“A lot of atrocities have been committed by those prisoners and wardens there. Don’t let it slip. How can a prisoner be receiving ₦500,000 in a student account?”
“Everything I said here is nothing but the truth. Once I started going to a Celestial Church of Christ, my eyes cleared—it was as if I was being controlled. Imagine sending nudes with my face. God saved me. The prisoner’s name is Perez Ekiyor,” she added.
Another victim narrowly escaped falling into a similar trap in 2023. She recounted how a man, claiming to work in Ibadan, Oyo State, began chatting with her on Facebook. They built a connection over three months before he asked her to deliver food to him in Warri.
On the night of the planned meeting, the man suddenly stopped responding to calls, only for her to later receive a phone call from someone claiming to be his brother.
The caller alleged that the man had been arrested and taken to Okere Prison for possessing iTunes gift cards sent by a foreign woman. He then tried to extort her for N200,000, claiming it was needed to pay a lawyer to secure his release. Suspicious of the story, she insisted on visiting him at the prison.