Justice I.M Buba of the Federal High Court sitting in Enugu, Enugu State, on Friday June 18, 2021, sentenced a student, Emmanuel Umahi, alias Eddy Morem, to two years imprisonment with an option of N150, 000.
Umahi was arraigned by the Enugu Zonal Office of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), on one count charge bordering on criminal impersonation with the intend to defraud.
The charge reads, “That you Emmanuel Umahi sometime in June 2021 in Enugu within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court, fraudulently impersonated @eddy_morem, a citizen of Croatia, using an Instagram Account, with intent to obtain money from unsuspecting foreign nationals and thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 22(3) (a) (b) of the Cybercrimes (Prohibition, Prevention, etc) Act, 2015 and punishable under Section 22(4) of the same Act”.
The defendant pleaded guilty when the charge was read to him prompting the prosecuting counsel, Michael Ani to ask the court to convict him.
Justice Buba in his judgment decried the incidence of cybercrimes saying, “This court takes cognizance that cybercrimes is on the increase. No nation will develop if its youths continue in crime. This court warns the defendant to desist from cybercrime or face the maximum consequence when next he appears before this court”.
