Justice O. I. Adelaja, presiding over the Federal Capital Territory’s High Court in Kubwa, has recently rendered verdicts in a significant case.
In this case, 15 individuals involved in internet fraud have been tried and subsequently sentenced to various terms of imprisonment.
The convicts are: Emmanuel Ndubuisi Junior, Obinna Favour, Azuh Chidubem, Christopher Enaho, Abdullahi Sani, Atoyebi Damilare James, Chinonso Peter and Israel Samuel. Others are Matthew Gideon, Eugene Joseph Boniface and Derick Beshel. The rest are: Suleiman Dauda, Aliu Dauda, Ikechukwu Idris and Godwin Ifeanyi.
One of the charges read: “that you Emmanuel Ndubuisi Junior aka Daniel Howard sometime in 2021 within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court did cheat by personation when you misrepresented yourself to be one Daniel Howard a citizen of Brazil and a crypto investment manager on Gmail address danielhowardsteve@gmail.com with intent to defraud whereby you obtained the sum of Seven Thousand Eight Hundred Dollars ($7,800) from one Sophia and thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 321 of the Penal Code Act (Abuja) Cap 532, LFN 2004 and punishable under Section 324 of the same Act”.
They all pleaded guilty to the one-count charges preferred against them.
Based on their pleas, Justice Adelaja convicted and sentenced Junior to one-year jail term or an option of fine of N2 million. He also forfeited $7,800 to the Federal Government while Favour bagged one-year jail term or an option of fine of N1 million.
Chidubem received a one-year prison sentence, and he has the choice to pay a fine of N1 million in lieu of incarceration. Meanwhile, Ifeanyi was also sentenced to one year in jail or the option to pay a fine of N500,000.
In contrast, the remaining individuals found guilty received alternative sentences involving community service hours of varying durations. These community service hours will be supervised by officers from the Correctional Service.
Additionally, all the convicted individuals are required to surrender their mobile phones to the Federal Government as part of their penalties.
