By Ken Chiwendu
Justices M.S. Abubakar and R.J. Egbe of the Federal High Court sitting in Makurdi, Benue State have convicted and sentenced five internet fraudsters to various jail terms.
The convicts: Ibi Shedrach Suurshter, Onazi Moses Oche, Innocent Ochola and Teseer Mnenge and Agbo Lawrence 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 charge against Oche reads: “That you Onazi Moses Oche sometime in 2022 within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court with intent to defraud used an access device issued to one Solomon Onuwa resulting from an aggregate gain of N2,345.000.00 to yourself and thereby committed an offence contrary and punishable under Section 33(2)(c) of the Cybercrime( Prohibition, Prevention etc) Act, 2015”.
Upon their arrangements, the convicts pleaded guilty when the charges were read to them. Consequently, the facts of the cases were reviewed and incriminating documents tendered in evidence before the court, following which prosecuting counsel, A.S Idris, prayed the court to sentence them accordingly.
After listening to all counsels, Justice Abubakar convicted and sentenced Suurshater to one-year imprisonment with an option of N400,000.00 (Four Hundred Thousand Naira) as fine.
Oche was convicted and sentenced to one-year imprisonment with an option of N600,000.00 (Six Hundred Thousand Naira) as fine.
Also, the judge convicted and sentenced Ochola to two years imprisonment with an option of fine of N1,000,000,00 (One Million Naira). Terseer Mnenge was also convicted and sentenced to one-year imprisonment with an option of N200,000.00 fine.
The fifth convict, Agbo was convicted and sentenced by Justice Egbe.
He bagged one-year imprisonment with an option of N200,000.00 (Two Hundred Thousand Naira) as fine.
The two judges further ordered them to forfeit all their phones, being proceeds of crime, to the government.
All the convicts started their journey to the Correctional Centre when they were arrested for internet-related offences. They were investigated individually and prosecuted.
