By Abimbola Ogunnaike
A Federal Capital Territory (FCT) High Court in Gwagwalada, presided over by Justice Aliyu Shafa, on Wednesday, 26 June, 2024 sentenced a 29-year-old internet fraudster, Eke Emmanuel, AKA Miller Fulton, to one year imprisonment for swindling his victim of $700.
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) had arraigned the convict before the court on a charge of cheating by impersonation.
Emmanuel pleaded guilty to the charge and begged the court for mercy.
Delivering judgment, Justice Shafa, held that the convict was guilty and sentenced to the term in the correctional centre.
Shafa, however, granted the convict an option of N200,000 fine.
The judge also granted the application of the Prosecution Counsel, Chiamaka Njoku, that the iphone X cellphone used to commit the crime and the $700 recovered from the convict should be forfeited to the Federal Government.
He also ordered that the convict should swear to an affidavit of good behaviour after his term in jail or upon paying his fine.
Earlier, the convict while pleading for mercy, told the court that he was deeply sorry for his action.
The Defence Counsel, P.E. Egeolu in his allocutus on behalf of the convict pleaded with the court to temper justice with mercy.
Egeolu said that the convict, who has no criminal records, was remorseful for committing the offence.
Earlier, the prosecution counsel, Njoku said that the convict sometimes in 2023 cheated by impersonation when he assumed the identity of one Miller Fulton, a military personnel from Denver, Colorado, United States.
She said that the convict fraudulently obtained the sum of 700 dollars from some unsuspecting victims.
The prosecutor said the offence contravened the provisions of Section 321 of the Penal Code, punishable under section 324 of the Code.
By an oral application, Njoku requested that the court order the forfeiture of the cellphone and money recovered from the convict to the Federal Government through the EFCC.
