Court Jails Man For Impersonation, Fraud

Justice Olubunmi Abike-Fadipe of the Lagos State Special Offences Court in Ikeja has convicted and sentenced a man, Emeka Ojugbeh, to one year imprisonment for fraudulently representing himself as a White man online and defrauding unsuspecting members of the public.

Justice Abike-Fadipe jailed Ojugbeh after he pleaded guilty to a one-count charge of having a fraudulent document containing false pretence contrary to section 320 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2015, brought against him by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

The counsel to the EFCC, Abubakar Dambuwa had earlier told the court that the defendant had, sometime in August 2023, falsely represented himself as a White man online, an identity through which he conducted multiple deals.

Dambuwa also told the judge that the defendant obtained $2,000 from his victims.

The prosecutor further claimed that the operatives of the EFCC received credible intelligence of an account engaged in cybercrime, which led them to arrest the convict.

He stated that the convict had an iPhone 12 Pro Max and an HP EliteBook Laptop in his possession upon his arrest.

Dambuwa said, “When the iPhone 12 Pro Max and Laptop that the defendant owned, the EFCC discovered several fraudulent documents in Google email addresses named after the White man he represented himself as.”

He said the EFCC printed out the fraudulent documents found in the email addresses, after which the defendant volunteered a confessional statement while in custody.

Dambuwa told the court that the defendant had applied for a plea bargain and restituted N500,000 to the EFCC in two tranches of N250,000.