Justice Mohammed Tukur of the Kaduna State High Court, Kaduna, has sentenced a Disc Jockey, Blessed Michael, to six months in prison for cloning the Facebook accounts of the immediate past Chief of Army Staff, Lt. General Tukur Buratai (retd) and Mariya Dangote, daughter of industrialist, Aliko Dangote.
Michael was arraigned by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) for using the false identities to solicit money from unsuspecting victims.
The one-count amended charge accused him of cheating by impersonation through the cloned Facebook account of the retired army chief by soliciting from persons seeking enlistment into the army.
In the same vein, he left a telephone number in the cloned Facebook account of Dangote’s daughter, with which he invited prospective victims to call in order to claim a certain amount of money.
Victims of the scam alerted the EFCC, leading to the arrest of the fraudster by operatives of its Kaduna Zonal Office.
On arraignment, the charge read: “That you Blessed Micheal (M) of No.2 Okoro, Benin City, Edo State sometime in January, 2021 in Kaduna within the Judicial Division of this Honourable Court did commit cheating by impersonation by pretending to be Tukur Yusuf Buratai (former Chief of Army Staff ) and Mariya Dangote (Daughter to Aliko Dangote ) on Facebook accounts you created using your iPhone 6, Infinix Hot 5 and in such assumed character obtained MTN recharge card worth One Thousand Naira (N1000) only from unsuspecting persons, you thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 308 of the Penal Code Law, 2017 of Kaduna State and punishable under section 309 of the same Law.”
The defendant pleaded guilty to the charge, prompting the EFCC counsel, Y. J Matiyak, to ask for conviction and sentencing accordingly.
Justice Tukur therefore convicted and sentenced the accused to six months imprisonment without an option of fine.