Justice Mohammed Abubakar of the Federal High Court sitting in Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital, has sentenced two internet fraudsters, Ridwan Lekan Garuba and Agbabiaka Idris Adebayo, to five and four months in prison respectively.
The convicts had pleaded guilty to separate one-count charge preferred against them by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission.
The charges bordered on fraud and impersonation.
The charge against Garuba read: “That you, Ridwan Lekan Garuba(a.k.a. Jefferson Godwin), sometime in 2020, at Abeokuta, Ogun State, within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court, with intend to defraud, impersonated one Jefferson Godwin, citizen of the United States of America, by which you obtained benefits and gained advantage from one Ruth Hodges Dennis, a female citizen of the United States of America, a pretext which you knew to be false and thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 22(2)(b)(i) and punishable under Section 22(2)(b)(iv)of the Cyber Crimes (Prohibition, Prevention, etc) Act, 2015.”
The charge against Agbabiaka rea: “That you, Agbabiaka Idris Adebayo ‘m’ ( a.k.a Melissa Brookrose), sometime between 2018 and 2020 at Sango Ota, Ogun State, within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court, with intent to defraud, impersonated one Charles Stewart, a citizen of the United States of America, by which you obtained benefits and gained advantage from one Christiana, a female citizen of the United States of America, a pretext which you know to be false and thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 22(2)(b)(i)of the Cyber Crimes (Prohibition, Prevention, etc) Act, 2015 and punishable under Section 22(2)(b)(iv) of the same Act.”
The EFCC counsel in the respective cases, Shamsuddeen Bashir, urged the court to convict the duo accordingly.
Justice Abubakar consequently convicted and sentenced Garuba to five months in prison with effect from the date of his arrest, while Agbaiaka bagged four months in prison also with effect from the date of his arrest.
Garuba, who had already refunded the sum of $1,000 to his victim through the Federal government of Nigeria, forfeited his Samsung S9 mobile phone, Samsung S6 mobile phone, one MIFI and one Nokia phone.
Agbabiaka also forfeited his iPhone mobile phone to the Federal Government of Nigeria, being part of the benefit he received from his fraudulent act.