Once hailed as a powerful crime-fighting tool, surveillance cameras have now become sinister weapons in the hands of cyber voyeurs—spying on unsuspecting women and, in many cases, trapping them in webs of blackmail and extortion, VICTOR AYENI reports
Perhaps nothing could have prepared Funke Ojosipe, an entrepreneur, for one of the harsh realities of being a single woman living alone in Lagos.
In mid-2016, she relocated from Shangisha, where she had lived with a family, to a self-contained apartment in Ketu-Ikosi, in the Kosofe Local Government Area of the state.
Recounting what happened at the time, the 34-year-old described being perpetually haunted by what she called a terrifying experience.
“Months after moving into my place, I began to notice someone spying on me through my window. It was a guy who lived next to my flat. The apartment where he stayed was close to mine, and there was no fence demarcating both of the buildings.
“This guy was known to be an electrician in the area and must have been around 20 or so at the time. On several occasions, I caught him peeking through my window as I changed my clothes or slept naked in my room,” she recounted to Saturday TheNigerian.
Ojosipe, who later got married and moved to a different area, recalled feeling vulnerable and fearing for her life at the time.
“I had to change my curtains to very opaque ones, but I didn’t know what that guy was capable of, and that made me nervous. He could have broken in to rob, rape, or even kill me, and nobody would have known.
“I quickly informed everyone I knew that I was being watched by a creepy neighbour. I even got video evidence, but it wasn’t clear.
“I was no longer free in my room, couldn’t sleep naked anymore, and had to constantly check through my window to be sure he wasn’t there, smiling at me like he usually did. I confronted him twice, but he didn’t stop,” she recalled.
According to the mother of two, her nightmare ended when the young man, who allegedly impregnated a teenager, left the area.
“His whereabouts remained unknown until I moved out of that place in 2018,” Ojosipe added. “Whenever I see similar scenarios on TV or read about them online, it reminds me of that crazy guy.”
Perverts deploying tech
While Ojosipe’s experience involved physical observation, the widespread presence of digital technology has led to an increase in the use of surveillance cameras by some voyeurs to infringe on the privacy of both women and men.
This crime, according to Nigerian Journals Online, is known as cyber voyeurism—the electronic transmission of images of a person engaging in a private act, such as sexual intimacy, in circumstances where they have a reasonable expectation of privacy.
“It involves the non-consensual filming and electronic transmission of these images and videos on the internet and social media,” the study added.
MSD Manuals, a reference work for physicians, describes voyeurism as “the act of observing (peeping) that is arousing, not sexual activity with the observed person.”
“Voyeurism usually begins during adolescence or early adulthood. Some degree of voyeurism is common, more among boys and men, but increasingly among women,” it added.
Included in this category is the “filming of non-consenting persons disrobing or engaging in sexual activity. This activity is increasingly common and is generally considered a crime in most countries.”
Closed-circuit television is a system of video cameras used to transmit a signal to a specific location on a limited set of monitors, differing from broadcast television.
CCTV signals are not openly transmitted but are typically employed for video monitoring and security purposes, with modern systems incorporating digital technology.
Commonly used in banks, ATMs, corporate buildings, restaurants, hotels, airports, train stations, parks, streets, and factories, modern CCTV systems often feature remote access via apps.
With smartphones, tablets, or computers, users can monitor live feeds and recorded footage through WiFi, mobile software, and cloud storage.
Findings by Saturday TheNigerian indicate that certain features make CCTV cameras an attractive tool for voyeurs who exploit them for perverted motives.
These cameras have motion alerts, which send notifications when movement is detected, and a zoom feature that allows users to adjust the camera’s view.
Additionally, many CCTV cameras can capture footage in low-light or no-light conditions using infrared LEDs, advanced sensors, thermal imaging, and built-in white lights similar to flashlights.
Abuja CCTV installer accused
Last Thursday, X.com (formerly Twitter) was abuzz when a user, Chief Legssss (@superlegss), threatened to expose an Abuja-based man whom she accused of spying on female clients after installing CCTV in their homes.
“So this guy, Abraham (surname withheld), installs CCTV for female clients and unlawfully gains access to their login details. He was caught with plenty of nudes of these women on his phone,” she wrote in another post the same day.
Within 24 hours, the allegation went viral, spreading from X (which has approximately 586 million users) to Facebook, where it sparked widespread outrage.
“He accessed the camera from his phone,” Facebook user Chukwudi Iwuchukwu wrote, “to watch explicit footage of his female clients in their vulnerable moments without their consent.”
“Abraham did all that and more just to satisfy his voyeuristic craving. A modern-day peeping Tom. One of his female clients suspected her camera login details had been compromised, and that was how he was caught.”
When our correspondent contacted Chief Legssss to inquire whether the case had been reported to the police and how the alleged nude photos were found on Abraham’s phone, she did not respond.
Although Abraham’s two X accounts, which were tagged by the accuser, had been deactivated as of Thursday morning when our correspondent checked, he used another X account, @icha_option24, to respond to the allegations on March 21.
“My attention has been drawn to an allegation of sexual predation against my person on social media by a certain lady. May I use this medium to state that there’s no iota of truth in this allegation, and I’ve resolved to take necessary actions against the originator of this defamation,” Abraham wrote.
A message sent by our correspondent to Abraham on Instagram on March 22 for comments had not been responded to as of the time this report was filed.
When our correspondent inquired from the Federal Capital Territory Police Public Relations Officer, SP Josephine Adeh, if the incident was reported, she said, “We don’t have such an incident reported in the FCT.”
Scepticism amid outrage
When Chief Legssss’s accusations against Abraham went viral on X, tech-savvy users pointed out that the login password for the CCTV in question should have been changed by the user.
“When installing a CCTV, and you are asked to enter a password, use a temporary one that you will change the moment the installer leaves. How to change the password should be one of the questions you ask the installer as he’s doing the configuration. There’s room for a password change on the CCTV app,” Nathan Oji advised.
A network engineer, John Udoh, described the voyeuristic act Abraham was accused of as “highly unprofessional,” noting that whenever he installs CCTV for clients, he always ensures they are the administrators for remote access.
“This gives them the liberty to allow or revoke access to their CCTV views. Clients must always insist on this. No one, not even the installer, should have unauthorised access to your surveillance system. Be circumspect!
“This is how we do it in my firm. During the configuration process, we make the client the admin and sole account manager of the system, ensuring they receive notifications,” he said.
He added, “Abraham might also have shared access with himself without the owner’s knowledge. The owner didn’t change her login details after installation.”
“Imagine being blackmailed with your nudity while in your own house because a pervert installed a camera for you. Women just can’t be free,” an X user, Pee Worldwide, wrote.
With a sad emoji, another X user, AnEtherealCoquetteFox, wrote, “Women are not safe. What if he has installed it in the toilets of hotels or homes I have visited? I want to die of imagination. He can’t be working alone. His type must be many out there. I am finished.”
“From a moral standpoint,” a CCTV installer, who gave his name simply as Olasunkanmi, said, “Abraham shouldn’t be looking at people’s nudes. So when the lady said he ‘unlawfully’ gained access to people’s CCTV, she made it sound like he stole it. No, he didn’t. She gave it to him.
“There are some cameras that automatically save videos and pictures on the phone storage of the owner, and it’s possible that was what happened. If you have CCTV installed in your house and you don’t want a CCTV engineer to have access to it, then change your login today!”
Reacting to the accusation in an interview with Saturday TheNigerian, a CCTV installer, Kehinde Lawal, faulted some of the details of the story, which he said might not add up.
“I’m not denying that some unscrupulous persons could do such a thing as this, but in this case, there are more questions than answers. The first thing is that there were claims that the cameras were in ladies’ bedrooms when their homes weren’t hotels or public places. That is quite rare.
“Unless it’s for specific purposes like capturing the identity of a criminal, most householders commonly station their CCTV at the entries to their bedrooms, sitting rooms, and kitchens. It’s rare for anyone to have them inside bedrooms or bathrooms, where they know they do intimate things or go unclad,” he told Saturday TheNigerian.
Spycam porn industry
Findings by our correspondent revealed that sexually explicit content mined from surveillance cameras installed in hotels, restrooms, women’s changing rooms, and private homes is often traded in many countries around the world.
In South Korea, for example, the prevalence of hidden filming has sparked angry protests in the country’s capital, Seoul, with calls for tougher sentencing for perpetrators.
The country saw more than 6,000 cases reported in 2017, up from 2,400 in 2012. More than 5,400 people were arrested for spy camera-related crimes in 2017, but fewer than two per cent were jailed, according to the BBC.
In Nigeria, the same pattern of crime has taken on more covert forms. Cyber voyeurs could be neighbours, jealous exes, hook-up partners, or strangers who utilise it for blackmailing victims.
Saturday TheNigerian learnt that some of the explicit content mined from surveillance cameras comes from unsuspecting victims who have been lured to a discreet location or invited to seedy motels for sexual liaisons by cyber voyeurs.
The content from these surveillance cams is often sold at exorbitant prices to people who demand them through messaging platform subscriptions, social media groups, and the dark web.
A sex worker who preferred to be called Sandra confided in our correspondent that cyber voyeurs often register their accounts on porn sites to supply an ever-waiting demand for such deviant material online.
“When they record you, you might not even know. They don’t even use hotels. They just use a place where the cameras have been preinstalled in places you don’t expect.
“Spy cams could be placed in ceiling fans, TV sets, wall fixtures, clocks, and air conditioners. What these guys do is sell this content to porn sites and receive big money. When they upload this stuff on sites, it brings much traffic, and they generate money,” Sandra disclosed.
A check by our correspondent showed that most Nigerian and international porn websites have a category called “spy cams,” or “leaked videos” with dozens of videos showing women in various states of undress and, in some cases, engaging in sexually explicit acts.
On September 3, 2024, the Bayelsa State Police Command arrested a man identified as Godgift Bai in connection with the nude video of a young girl that was circulated on social media platforms.
According to a statement released by the command’s Public Relations Officer, ASP Musa Mohammed, the arrest followed a thorough investigation by the Cyber Crime Unit, and the suspect will be charged in court.
The walls have eyes
In January 2021, a man who lodged in a hotel in Ayepe, in the Odogbolu area of Ogun State, raised the alarm about some hidden cameras, which he said were embedded at various sites in the guest rooms.
Speaking in a video that went viral at the time, the man accused the manager of the hotel of spying on his mother and uncle, who also checked into the guest house with him.
“This is a room in the hotel we are sleeping at Ayepe. We just found out that there is a camera installed in every room,” the man said as he removed a camera concealed in an air conditioner.
“These are the four we removed from the other rooms. This has recorded the nakedness of my mother, brother, and uncle. Imagine, you are putting cameras in our rooms, infringing on people’s privacy, seeing people’s nakedness,” the man alleged.
Confronting the management of the hotel, the man accused the hotel of infringing on the rights of unsuspecting visitors.
“You are putting cameras in people’s rooms,” the enraged guest accused a man believed to be the manager of the hotel, to which he nonchalantly answered, “Yes, yes?”
Following a tide of public outcry, the Ogun State Police Command disclosed that it had commenced an investigation into the alleged invasion of the privacy of guests at the hotel.
“The owner of the hotel stays in Lagos, and the Divisional Police Officer in Odogbolu has invited him. We are expecting him to come and state his reasons for doing so,” a statement by the police said.
Similarly, in July 2022, a man also alleged that a hotel in which he lodged on Victoria Island, Lagos, had a spy camera installed in its air conditioner.
Speaking in pidgin English, the man could be heard saying, “Omo, people don suffer for this Lagos o. See the hotel wey I lodge for the Island, see the camera inside AC. I just reach here now, now see wetin I dey see.”
In one of the comments on the video, which was posted by a popular blog on July 28, 2022, on Facebook, Norman Mj debunked the accusation.
“That’s a sensor. It’s a technology used by the air conditioner to know how much cold is needed in that room. It can also detect movements and rotate its blade according to where people are in a room,” he wrote.
Detecting spy cameras
Highlighting how guests could find out if they are being spied on, a CCTV expert, Timothy Eke, explained that a flashlight from a phone can easily detect where a camera could be potentially hidden. It may even be the one on your smartphone.
“When you enter a hotel room, turn on your flashlight and use it to search across the room. If the ray of light hits a camera lens with a strong beam of light, you will get a bluish reflection. Also, take a careful look at all the accessories in the room. If a spycam is put there, you will know,” he explained to our correspondent.
How victims are blackmailed
It was gathered that while some cyber voyeurs use explicit content as revenge porn, others serially blackmail victims to obtain their explicit photos or videos.
In 2019, a suspect identified as Victor Duru, a Madonna University dropout, was arrested for luring girls from his church in Lagos to hotels and taking their nude photographs.
The 23-year-old subsequently used the photographs to blackmail them in exchange for money.
One of Duru’s girlfriends, whose pictures he had taken in conjunction with his friend at gunpoint while he lodged her in a hotel in Ijeshatedo, called the Rapid Response Squad headquarters to report her experience.
An investigation by the authorities revealed that the suspect allegedly laced the drink of another girl with a sleeping drug, as shown by the photographs obtained from one of his mobile phones.
In another case, 32-year-old Nnamdi Iweka, who claimed to be a graduate of Nnamdi Azikiwe University, was arrested by the Lagos Police Command for allegedly blackmailing and forcefully extorting money from ladies.
The suspect reportedly used multiple Facebook profiles as decoys, where he announced contract advertisements and job vacancies to his followers.
According to police sources, Iweka invited only female applicants for a supposed interview at a hotel location, where he would pose as the personal assistant to a prominent Nigerian who he claimed would give the job or contract.
The suspect would often demand sex from the ladies in the course of the supposed interview, even though some of the interviewees were married.
Unknown to the ladies who gave in to his demands, Iweka allegedly set up a camcorder through which he recorded their sexual activities.
This explicit footage would then be used by the suspect to blackmail his victims and threaten to post their nudes or videos on the internet if they did not meet his financial demands.
Iweka was arrested after he posted the nudes of one of his victims, a banker, on the internet in April 2014 after she failed to pay him N20,000, which he had demanded.
This prompted the lady to report the case to the police, and she was subsequently used as bait to get Iweka arrested.
“We found the laptop he used for these atrocities. Stored in it were videos of several women in their nude, including that of the banker,” a police source disclosed.
In August 2014, three attendants of a hotel in Ogudu, Lagos—Sunday Okon, 23; Rita Emmanuel, 28; and Goodness Akpan, 24—were arraigned before an Ogudu Chief Magistrate Court in Lagos for allegedly filming a hotel customer’s sex act and using it to blackmail him.
The three accused persons allegedly used the hotel’s CCTV to record the unidentified man’s intimate act with his girlfriend and from it, produced a DVD, which they used to demand N10 million from him.
The suspects reportedly posted the video on Facebook after the victim refused to pay the money demanded.
‘I’ve been peeping on women’
A graduate who gave his name simply as Ayomide, in a public group on Facebook, admitted to being a voyeur who had been peeping on his neighbours and friends, especially when they were taking their baths.
“It all started six years ago during my National Diploma in school,” Ayomide wrote, “And up till now, I’m still living with it. During my ND, there was no female neighbour whose nudity I didn’t see. Even when I went back for my HND, I did the same thing.
“I’ve been doing this for six years, but I’ve never been caught. Sometimes I ask God why I was not caught all those times in school. I’ve tried every possible means to stop it, but they all failed. Even when I don’t want to do it, my spirit will keep pushing me, and if I don’t do it at that time, I won’t rest. It seems I can’t live without it.”
Commenting on voyeuristic disorders, psychologist Kolawole Afolabi explained that the disorder is largely found among hypersexual men or those predisposed to exhibitionistic disorder and antisocial personality disorder.
“It may be their preferred method of sexual activity, even in cases of depression. Voyeurs are intensely and repeatedly aroused by observing an unsuspecting person who is naked, undressing, or engaging in sexual activity, and the arousal is expressed in fantasies, urges, or behaviours.
“They may feel distressed about this, and it affects their ability to function well at work or home. They have acted on their urges with a person who has not consented. They need psychotherapy, support groups, and medication. Ideally, treatment usually begins when they are arrested,” he said.
Report incidents to the police – Lawyer
A lawyer, Agbo Obinnaya, in an interview with Saturday TheNigerian, explained that victims of cyber voyeurism should file a complaint with the police.
“Victims should provide as much detail as possible, including dates, times, and any evidence such as screenshots, messages, or the content itself. The Nigeria Police Force – National Cybercrime Centre is empowered to investigate cybercrimes, including those related to voyeurism, under the Cybercrimes (Prohibition, Prevention, etc.) Act of 2015,” he stated.
The lawyer also advised that victims collect all relevant proof, such as unauthorised images or videos, online posts, or communications with the perpetrator, which he noted would help strengthen their case.
“Some people make the mistake of deleting their videos or pictures, usually because they are ashamed. However, without any trace of this evidence, it will be difficult to carry out necessary investigations and show proof in court.
“In other words, deleting this evidence will most likely be detrimental to their case. The Cybercrimes (Prohibition, Prevention, etc.) Act of 2015 and the Cybercrimes (Prohibition, Prevention, etc.) (Amendment) Act of 2024 remain the primary laws addressing cyber-related offences in Nigeria.
“While they do not explicitly use the term ‘cyber voyeurism,’ Part III of the 2015 Act covers offences and penalties, including actions such as sending or distributing obscene, menacing, or offensive material. This can apply to sharing private images or videos without consent. Victims can reference this law when reporting to ensure the police treat it as a cybercrime.”
The lawyer also advised victims to consider additional laws, such as the Violence Against Persons (Prohibition) Act, the Criminal Code (applicable in Southern Nigeria), and the Child’s Rights Act if the victim is a minor.
“Consulting a lawyer experienced in cybercrime or privacy law will help the victim navigate the whole issue seamlessly. Victims can easily connect with lawyers on Case Radar. Lawyers are relevant in cases of this nature,” Obinnaya added.
