Court Convicts Six Internet Fraudsters In Delta State

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, Benin Zonal office, has  secured the convictions  of Six (6) internet fraudsters before Justice  Emeke Nwite of the Federal High Court sitting in Warri , Delta State.

The convicts  are Ufuoma Miracle ( a.k.a Roland Gobalin) ,  Ofomola Omovigho ( a.k.a Doctor),  Abraham Idede ( a.k.a Eugene Berry) , Onatakapoma Julius (a.k.a Chris Roman: Frank Leonard),  P. Rarowe ( a.k.a Meyers)  and Freeborn Efe

Five  of the convicts, Miracle , Rarowe , Julius,  Omovigho and Efe were arraigned on charges of impersonating foreign nationals on Facebook and defrauding their female victims in the process.

Abraham Dede was arraigned on a count charge of making false statement and misrepresenting his identity for the purpose of procuring a Facebook account with intent to defraud unsuspecting people.

One of the count reads: “That you Onatakapoma Julius ( a.k.a Be. Chris Roman, a.k.a Frank Leonard)  sometime in 2018 at Sapale , Delta State within the jurisdiction of this honourable court did with intent to defraud sent electronic messages which materially misrepresent facts to Mrs Linda , a lady from Indonesia which she lied on and suffered financial loss in the sum of N370,769, 88 only and thereby committed an offence punishable under Section 14(2) of the Cybercrime ( Prohibition Prevention etc) Act, 2015

Another reads: “That you Freeborn Efe sometime in 2018 at Sapele, Delta State within the jurisdiction of this honourable court did with intent to defraud sent electronic messages which materially misrepresent  facts to Susan, a lady from USA which she relied on and thereby committed an offence  punishable under Section 14 (2) of the Cybercrime ( Prohibition Prevention etc) Act , 2015.

The defendants all pleaded guilty to the charge preferred against them by the EFCC.

Based on their plea , the prosecution counsel, F. Dibang urged the court to convict. He prayed the court to order the forfeiture of  items recovered from the defendants to the Federal Government. However, the defence counsel, P.E.Ejiga pleaded with the court to temper justice with mercy as they were first time offenders who are remorseful for their actions.
Justice Nwite on Monday November 18, 2019 convicted and sentenced five of the defendants  to six months imprisonment and a fine of two hundred thousand Naira (N200,000) each while Ofomola Omovigho was fined N300, 000.

The judge also ruled that all items recovered from them during investigation be forfeited to the Federal Government of Nigeria