Justice P.I. Ajoku of the Federal High Court sitting in Port Harcourt, Rivers State has convicted and sentenced two impersonators of Mr. Godwin Obla, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, SAN, Prince Samuel and Ekenne Jacob Onyeocha to three years jail terms each for Conspiracy, obtaining money by false pretense and impersonation.

They were prosecuted by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, Port Harcourt Command, on three counts. One of the counts reads: “That you, Prince Samuel and Ekenne Jacob Onyeocha on or about 7th of July, 2022 in Port Harcourt, Rivers State within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court fraudulently represented yourself as Godwin Obla (SAN) using a fake email account This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. with the intent to gain advantage for yourself and thereby committed an offense contrary to Section 22 (2) (b) (i) Cybercrimes (Prohibition, Prevention Etc.) Act, 2015 and Punishable under Section 22 (2) (b) (iv) of the same Act.

Another Count- charge read:

"That you Ekenne Jacob Onyeocha and Prince Samuelon or about 7th of July, 2022 in Port Harcourt, Rivers State within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court with intent to defraud obtained the sum of Two Million, Three Hundred and Seventy One Thousand Naira only (N2, 371,000.00) from Ogeyi Place Hotel Limited under that the representation that the said sum is your outstanding credit balance with the Hotel, a pretense you knew to be false and thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 1(1) (a) of the Advance Fee Fraud and Other Fraud Related Offences Act, 2006 and punishable under Section 1 (3) of the same Act”.

They pleaded “guilty” to the three counts.

Justice Ajoku on March 28, 2023 convicted and sentenced the defendants to one year jail term on each count with Two Hundred Thousand Naira (N200,000.00) as a fine. The sentence shall run concurrently from the date of arrest.

The Convicts hacked the account of Mr. Obla with Ogeyi Place Hotel and defrauded the customer of Two Million, Three Hundred and Seventy One, Thousand Naira (N2, 371,000.00), between 2018 and 2019.

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 realized that it had been defrauded.

Media & Publicity

05/04/2023