Justice K. Dagat of the Federal High Court Maiduguri,
Borno State on Tuesday, 17 June 2025 convicted and sentenced the duo of Samuel
Okoro and Lucky Dauda to eight years imprisonment each.
The defendants were arraigned on two -count separate
charges by the Maiduguri Zonal Directorate of the Economic and Financial Crimes
Commission, EFCC, for the offences of money laundering and impersonation.
The charge against Okoro reads: “That you, Samuel
Okoro between 2022 and 2024 at Maiduguri, Borno State within the jurisdiction
of this Honourable Court did directly take possession of United States of
American Dollars denominated Cash App and Gift Cards worth about $4,000 (Four
Thousand United States Dollars) foreign nationals like: Charlotte, Sajid Ali
Jaan, Carrie Gurthrie, Ruben Rodriguez amongst others which upon conversion to
naira amounted to an aggregate sum of N5,000,000.00 (Five Million Naira) only
paid into your First Bank Plc account No. 3187995774, Samuel Okoro being the
naira equivalent value for cash app and gift cards which you knew or reasonably
ought to have known is proceeds of your fraud or form part of proceeds of
unlawful act and thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 18(2) (d) of
the Money Laundering Prevention and Prohibition Act 2022 and punishable under
Section 18(3) of the same Act.”
That of Dauda reads: “That you, Lucky Dauda between
2020 and 2024 at Maiduguri, Borno State within the jurisdiction of this
Honourable Court did directly take possession of aggregate sum of $20,615.00
(Twenty Thousand Six Hundred and Fifteen cents United States of American
Dollars) into your Guaranty Trust Bank Plc account No. 0165705344 Dauda Lucky,
being the value for United States of American dollars denominated cash
app, google play, visa, walmart, payPal and gift cards etc. that you fraudulently
received which you knew or reasonably ought to have known is proceeds of your
fraud or form part of proceeds of unlawful act and thereby committed an offence
contrary to Section 18(2) (d) of the Money Laundering Prevention and
Prohibition Act 2022 and punishable under Section 18(3) of the same Act.”
The defendants pleaded guilty when the charges were
read to them by the court.
Counsel for the prosecution, Abdulmalik D. Aliyu
prayed the court to convict them as charged, while defence counsel O. C
Nwankwo and A. Musa prayed the court to temper justice with mercy in sentencing
the defendants.
Justice Dagat thereafter convicted and sentenced Okoro
and Dauda to four years imprisonment on count one and two with an option of
N100,000.00 ( One Hundred Thousand Naira only) on each count.
The judge further ordered the forfeiture of the monies
they benefited as well as iPhone 15 pro max, Samsung galaxy A34 and Samsung
galaxy S to the Federal Government of Nigeria.
The convicts’ journey to jail began when
they were arrested in Maiduguri following
credible intelligence on their fraudulent internet activities.
Comments:
Leave a Reply