Fifteen (15) Internet Fraudsters have been jailed by courts in Makurdi, Benue State, Kaduna in Kaduna State and Port Harcourt in Rivers State respectively.
CONVERSEER gathered that 12 internet fraudsters were convicted and sentenced to various jail terms by Justices R.J. Egbe, N. I Afolabi and Emeka Nwite, M.S Abubarkar, M.S.Abubakar, A. Onoja, Justice Ajiya Ngajuwa and Justice Emeka Nwite of the Federal High Court sitting in Makurdi, Lafia and Abuja respectively.
The convicts were jailed after pleading guilty to one-count separate charges upon their arraignment by the Makurdi Zonal Command of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
The convicts are Bem Peter, Onminyi Joseph Ocheje, Nelson Ogbu Oche, Gabriel Sughter, Samuel Lubem, Terver Terfa James, Dominic Chiemere Bonaventure, Anaambe Michael, Okanche Samuel, Ebu Emmanuel Anoyedu, Omotunde Oluwamayowa and Pkutu Christopher.
The charge against Ocheje reads: “That you, Onminyi Joseph Ocheje “M” sometime between January and December 2021 in Makurdi, Benue State, within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court with intent to defraud sent an electronic message to UBA and First City Monument Bank Plc causing the Bank to initiate a reversal from Accelerex Network Limited (a payment gateway/platform) that materially misrepresented the facts that the transaction of N3,350,000.00 (Three Million, Three Hundred and Fifty Thousand Naira) only failed which Accelerex Network Ltd relied upon and suffered loss by making a chargeback and you thereby committed an offence contrary to and punishable under Section 14(2) of the Cybercrime (Prohibition and Prevention etc) Act 2015.”
They all pleaded guilty to their charges when they were read to them, prompting Prosecution counsel, A.S Idris, M. Yusuf and A. Gazali to pray the court to convict and sentence them accordingly.
Justice Egbe convicted and sentenced Peter to one-year imprisonment with an option of N100,000.00 (One Hundred Thousand Naira) as a fine, he forfeited one Techno Spark G 2021 phone to the Federal Government of Nigeria. Justice Afolabi convicted Ocheje and Oche.
Ocheje was convicted and sentenced to two years imprisonment with an option of N500,000.00 (Five Hundred Thousand Naira) only as a fine, while Oche bagged one-year imprisonment with an option of N500,000.00 (Five Hundred Thousand Naira) only as fine.
Justice Abubakar convicted and sentenced Sughter to one-year imprisonment with an option of N500,000.00 (Five Hundred Thousand Naira) fine, Lubem one year imprisonment with an option of N100,000.00 (One Hundred Thousand Naira) fine, James two years imprisonment with an option of N500,000.00 (Five Hundred Thousand Naira) fine. Others are Bonaventure one year imprisonment with an option of N100,000.00 (One Hundred Thousand Naira) fine, Michael one year imprisonment with an option of N500,000.00 (Five Hundred Thousand Naira) fine and Samuel one year imprisonment with an option of with an option of N500,000.00 (Five Hundred Thousand Naira) fine.
Justice Onoja convicted and sentenced Anojedu to one-year imprisonment with an option of N100,000.00 (One Hundred Thousand Naira) fine and Justice Ngajuwa convicted and sentenced Oluwamayowa to three years imprisonment with an option of N200,000.00 (Two Hundred Thousand Naira fine.
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Also, Justice Nwite convicted and sentenced Christopher to one year imprisonment without an option of a fine.
All the convicts bagged their imprisonment when they were arrested by operatives of the Benue Zonal Command of the EFCC for internet-related offences. They were charged to court and convicted.
In the same vein, Justice A. A Bello of the Kaduna State High Court sitting in Kaduna convicted two internet fraudsters; Emmanuel Isaac and Kelvin Ibrahim, who were jailed on charges bordering on cybercrime activities.
Their conviction was secured by the Kaduna Zonal Command of the EFCC.
While Isaac was charged on two-count amended charges bordering on cheating by impersonation, Ibrahim was charged on a one-count charge bordering on impersonation.
Isaac’s count one reads: “That you Emmanuel Isaac (a.k.a Bea Suzy) (M), sometimes between January and April 2024 at Kaduna, within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court, committed an offence, to wit; falsely presented yourself as Bea Suzy; a South Korean actress, to several unsuspecting victims including one David Vargas, which pretence you knew to be false and thereby committed an offence contrary to and punishable under Section 142(1) of the Kaduna State Penal Code Law, 2017.
Ibrahim’s lone-count charge reads: “That you, Kelvin Ibrahim (a.k.a Susinna Simone) on or about the 25th of April, 2024 at Peace Chalet, Kudende, Kaduna State, within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court, impersonated one Susinna Simone via your email address privatechat2422@gmail.com and in such assumed character, posted as a fashion model from Italy to the unsuspecting members of the public and you thereby committed an offence contrary to and punishable under Section 142(1) of the Kaduna State Penal Code Law, 2017”.
When the charges were read to them, they both pleaded guilty respectively, prompting the prosecuting counsel M.E Eimonye and M.U Gadaka to pray the court to convict them accordingly.
Justice Bello consequently convicted and sentenced Isaac to two years imprisonment on each count or a fine of 100,000.00 (One Hundred Thousand Naira ) on each count. He also forfeited one Apple iPhone X phone to the Federal Government of Nigeria through the EFCC. A sum of N309,850.00 (Three Hundred and Nine Thousand, Eight Hundred and Fifty Naira) recovered from him was also forfeited to the government.
Ibrahim, on the other hand, was convicted and sentenced to three years imprisonment or a fine of N150,000.00 (One Hundred and Fifty Thousand Naira). He also forfeited One Techno Pop-6 phone and the sum of $100 to the government.
The journey to the Correctional Centre started for the two convicts when they were arrested at Kudende, Kaduna State. They were subsequently investigated and found to be using stolen identities of foreigners to create fictitious social media accounts to defraud unsuspecting victims.
Also, Justice S. D. Pam of the Federal High Court, Port Harcourt, Rivers State, convicted and sentenced one Daniel Walter Anga to prison for internet fraud.
He was prosecuted by the Port Harcourt Zonal Command of the EFCC on a one-count charge of impersonation.
The charge reads: “That you, Daniel Walter Anga on or about 21st February 2024, at Port Harcourt, within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court, did fraudulently impersonate Hudson Cole a white male Veteran military officer with intent to gain advantage for yourself and thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 22 (2) (b) (i) of the Cybercrimes (Prohibition, Prevention) Act, 2015 and punishable under the same section of the Act.”
He pleaded “guilty” when the charge was read to him, following which prosecution counsel, I. Agu, tendered some documents in evidence and called a witness, ASE 1, Yahaya Yusuf Abbas, an operative of EFCC who testified against him.
The documents tendered by the prosecution included: the statement of the defendant, incriminating printouts from the defendant’s mobile device and his iPhone 12.
Based on the evidence tendered and the testimonies of the witness, Agu prayed the court to convict and sentence accordingly, while defence counsel J. J.Simon asked the court to temper justice with mercy, stating that the defendant was a first-time offender and did not waste the time of the court.
Justice Pam thereafter sentenced Anga to one-year imprisonment or a fine of N20,000.00 (Twenty Thousand Naira). He also forfeited his iPhone 12 mobile device to the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
Investigation revealed that the defendant specialised in romance scams, using false identities on Facebook and Gmail.
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