Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Markudi command has secured the conviction of six fraudsters before Justice Abdul Dogo of a Federal High Court sitting in Makurdi, Benue State.
According to the anti-graft agency, the convicts are,Odumu Emmanuel, Audu Abdulgafar Idowu, Ikwe Daniel Adawu, Benedict Udochukwu Ezeokole, Clement David Onoja and Lawrence Ndubisi.
Audu was sentenced to one year in prison with the option of a fine of N500,000.00 (Five Hundred Thousand Naira).
Ikwe was sentenced to three years in prison with the option of a N2 million Naira fine.
Benedict was sentenced to one year in prison with the possibility of a N1 million fine. He must also surrender a Lexus 330 automobile, two laptop computers, an iPhone 13 Pro Max, and an iPhone 7.
Clement was sentenced to one year in prison and a fine of one million Naira. In addition, he forfeits an iPhone 11 to the Federal Government of Nigeria.
While Lawrence was sentenced to one year in prison with the possibility of a one million naira fine. He was forced to hand over an iPhone 12 to the Federal Government of Nigeria.
The charge against Odumu Emmanuel reads: “That you Odumu Emmanuel ‘m’ (24 years) between October, 2022 and January, 2023 in Lafia, Nasarawa State, within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court, fraudulently impersonated by representing yourself to be Jawarska Malina and Miguel Alenjandra, the United State of America females and using their unique identification details to register for Appen social security program and obtained the sum of $3, 600.00 (Three Thousand and Six Hundred Dollars), received in your Gpay foreign online platform account, which you converted and transferred to your Stanbic IBTC Bank Account No. 0025110646 and thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 22(2)(b)(i) of the Cybercrime (Prohibition, Prevention etc) Act, 2015 and punishable under subsection 22(2) of the same Act”.
