Israel Adeleke
Justice A.Y. Shafa of the FCT High Court Gwagwalada-Abuja had sentenced a cyber criminal , Canice Agabi, three-month imprisonment for impersonation..
PLATFORM TIMES reports that the convict was dragged to court by Economic and Financial Crimes Commission , Abuja Zonal Command, on Wednesday.
EFCC stated this on its official tweeter handle.
PLATFORM TIMES further gathered that sometime in 2021 in Abuja, Agabi, pretended to be an American citizen and created an Instagram account with the username ‘Randy Sylvester’ and benefitted a total sum of $1,000 (One Thousand United States Dollars) from one Anne Fuscelaro, a United States citizen, whom he convinced to invest in his cryptocurrency company, Prime Cash Investment, promising good returns.
During the trial, Agabi pleaded guilty to the charge of impersonation, which, according to the commission, is against Section 321 of the Penal Code Act, Laws of the Federation (Abuja) 1990 and punishable under Section 324 of the same Act.
Following his guilty plea, Justice A.Y. Shafa however, sentenced Agabi to three months in prison with an option to pay a fine of N200,000 (Two Hundred Thousand Naira) fine. The convict, who had earlier returned $200 (Two Hundred United States Dollars) is to pay a further sum of N623,000 (Six Hundred and Twenty Three Thousand Naira) in restitution to the Federation Account.
The court also ordered that his Samsung Note 10 mobile phone which he used to commit the crime, be burnt in the court premises.
In the same vein, Justice Shafa also convicted one Nwozor Martins, following his guilty plea for posing as the CEO of Binary Trade Investment, on Facebook and WhatsApp to extort people.
Nwozor’s charge reads, “that you, Nwozor Martins sometime between July 2022 and April 2023 in Abuja within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court while representing yourself to be one Camela Onyinye, a female Nigerian citizen and a purported Chief Executive of Binary Trade Investment, uploaded and knowingly substituted her picture with yours on your Facebook social platform and WhatsApp profile account number 0807446172; from which you benefitted the aggregate sum of N570,000.00 (Five Hundred and Seventy Thousand Naira) from a certain Bashir Bello and others which you received via your account number 306660587 domiciled in Access Bank Plc and you thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 321 of the Penal Code Act, Cap 532 Laws of the Federation (Abuja) 1990 and punishable under Section 324 of the same Law”.
He however pleaded guilty to the crime, and was sentenced to a three-month imprisonment with an option to pay a fine of N200,000 (Two Hundred thousand Naira Only.
Nwozor who had already refunded N200,000 as restitution, is to pay the remaining balance of N370,000 to the Federation account.
Similar to Agabi’s case, his iPhone and Tecno phones will be burnt in the court premises.
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