Justice P.I. Ajoku of the Federal High Court sitting in Port Harcourt, Rivers State has convicted and sentenced Prince Samuel and Ekenne Jacob Onyeocha, two impersonators of Mr. Godwin Obla SAN, to three years imprisonment each.
In a statement on Wednesday, April 5, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) said its Port Harcourt Command prosecuted the convicts on three counts bordering on conspiracy, obtaining money by false pretense and impersonation.
They pleaded “guilty” to the three counts.
The court heard how the convicts hacked the account of Mr. Obla with Ogeyi Place Hotel and defrauded the customer of N2.371 million between 2018 and 2019.
The EFCC said that “The hotel sometime in January 2022, received an email from the convicts pretending to be their client, Mr. Obla, a senior Advocate of Nigeria, SAN, requesting to know his credit balance with the Hotel.
“Upon the confirmation of the same, they further requested that the balance be credited into the account of one Mr. Godwin Anietie Obla J, with account number: 2192067287 domiciled in United Bank for Africa.
“After transferring the money, the legitimate owner of the money visited the Hotel to lodge but was told that he gave an instruction for his account balance to be transferred, which he refuted.
“At this point, the hotel realised that it had been defrauded,” the EFCC said.
Justice Ajoku on March 28, 2023, convicted and sentenced the defendants to one year jail term on each count with N200,000.00 as a fine.
The court said that the sentence shall run concurrently from the date of arrest.