Man Arraigned For Romance Scam, Non-declaration Of $28,000 Assets

The Kaduna Zonal Office of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), on Monday, arraigned one Joseph Victor Ndubuka before Justice Darius Khobo of the Kaduna State High Court on a two count charge bordering on romance scam and non-disclosure of assets.

The defendant allegedly used the false identity of Caucasian gay to defraud unsuspecting victims of their hard-earned money.

One of the counts reads, “that you, Victor Joseph Ndubuka “m” sometime in March 2023 within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court knowingly failed to make full disclosure of your assets by deliberately refusing to declare your cryptocurrency and Non Fungible Token (NTF) all worth about Twenty Eight Thousand Dollars in the Disclosure of Assets and Liabilities Form and you thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 27(3) (a) of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (Establishment) Act, 2004 and punishable under Section (27) (3) of the same Act.

He pleaded not guilty to the charges.

In a statement issued by EFCC’s media and publicity team, it disclosed that the prosecuting counsel, Precious C. Onyeneho, urged the court to fix a date for hearing of the matter, while the defence counsel, A.I Hamza, urged the court to admit his client to bail.

Justice Darius, however, adjourned the case till May 3, 2023 for hearing of his bail application and ordered the defendant remanded at the Correctional Centre.

EFCC’s Zonal command in Kaduna also arraigned another man, Munkai’la Abubakar, before Justice Darius Khobo of the State High Court on a seven-count charge bordering on obtaining by false pretense and forgery.

The defendant was said to have allegedly sold four plots of land to one Umar Iskil for N4,800,000 with forged titled documents in January 2018.