A 20-year-old Nigerian undergraduate, Udoh Okon, has landed himself in trouble after defrauding one Kimberly, an American woman of $500.
After admitting to the crimes he was accused of, the young man was convicted by a Kwara State High Court sitting in Ilorin, Kwara State, Bibian Anekwe News reports.
Okon’s trouble started following his arrest by the State chapter of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC.
The anti-graft agency’s head of media, Wilson Uwujaren, who briefed newsmen of the fraudster’ actions said Okon defrauded Kimberly of $500 via a Facebook lottery.
The Akwa Ibom indigene was arraigned on one count, to which he pleaded guilty.
The charge read, “That you, Udoh Okon (Christopher Wray) sometime in March 2021 at Ilorin, within the jurisdiction of this honourable court did cheat by personation when you pretended to be one Christopher Wray, a white male with +18315088635 as your WhatsApp business line and fraudulently deceived Kimberly, an American, to send $500 worth of eBay gift card to you after you made him believe that he won $1,000,000 Facebook lottery and you thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 321 of the Penal Code and punishable under Section 324 of the Penal Code.”
Following his plea, counsel for the EFCC, Sesan Ola, urged the court to convict the defendant and sentence him.
In his ruling, the court judge, Justice Sikiru Oyinloye pronounced the defendant guilty of the offence and sentenced him to one year in prison with an option of a fine of N200,000.
In addition, the court ordered the forfeiture of the N206,000 draft raised as restitution by the convict and the iPhone which he used in perpetrating the crime, to the Federal Government.
