Three fraudsters jailed in Uyo

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, Uyo Zonal Office has secured the conviction of Ekemini Akaninyene, Ikekha Martins and Peter Alban. They were convicted on charges of impersonation, phishing and hacking of e-mail accounts by Justice Adamu Mohammed of the Federal High Court, sitting in Port Harcourt Rivers State.

The trio, based on a plea bargain agreement by the parties, pursuant to Section 270 of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act (ACJA) 2015, pleaded ‘guilty’ to the separate one count  charge preferred against them by the Commission

Following the adoption of the plea bargain agreement , Justice Adamu Mohammed convicted and sentenced the defendants to six months imprisonment each, with the option of a fine of One Hundred Thousand Naira (N150,000) only.

The court further ordered the forfeiture of all the instruments used by the convicts in committing the crimes to the Federal Government.

The convicts were arrested in Uyo Akwa Ibom State on December 11, 2020.

Documents recovered from his email showed that Akaninyene posed as an American porn star, Ashley Adams, with the intent to defraud; while  Chigozie Alban was sending bulk scam mails, with intent to defraud his victims, most of them American citizens.

Martins was convicted for hacking the Facebook account of one Mr. Godwin and others, with intent to defraud.