The Federal High Court sitting in Makurdi, Benue State has convicted and sentenced five internet fraudsters to various jail terms.
Trial judges in the cases were Justices M. Abubakar and R. Egbe.
Those convicted include Ibi Suurshter, Onazi Oche, Innocent Ochola, Teseer Mnenge and Agbo Lawrence were jailed after pleading guilty to one- count separate charges upon their arraignment by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC.
The charge against Oche reads: “That you Onazi Oche sometime in 2022 within the jurisdiction of this court with intent to defraud used an access device issued to one Solomon Onuwa resulting from an aggregate gain of N2.345million 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. Idris, prayed the court to sentence them accordingly.
After listening to all counsel, Justice Abubakar convicted and sentenced Suurshater to one year imprisonment with an option of N400,000 as fine.
Oche was convicted and sentenced to one year imprisonment with an option of N600,000 as fine.
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Also, the judge convicted and sentenced Ochola to two years imprisonment with an option of fine of N1million.
Terseer Mnenge was also convicted and sentenced to one year imprisonment with an option of N200,000 fine.
The fifth convict, Agbo was convicted and sentenced by Justice Egbe.
He bagged one year imprisonment with an option of N200,000 as fine.
The two judges further ordered them to forfeit all their phones, being proceeds of crime, to the government.
They were arrested, investigated individually and prosecuted by the EFCC.
