A 19-year-old teenager, Peterson Enoch, has been sentenced to 12 months imprisonment over offences bordering on internet fraud.
The teenager was jailed by the Justice Dairus Khobo-led Kaduna High Court judge on Thursday.
Earlier, the state Zonal Command of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) had dragged the convict, a resident of Millennium City, Kaduna, to court.
The Counsel to the anti-graft agency, P. C. Onyeneho, told the court that the defendant on August 25 at Malali, was arrested following actionable intelligence about the activities of persons suspected to be fraudsters.
“Upon arrest, one iPhone 12 and Infinix S5 phone were recovered from Enoch and when the phone was analysed, several fraudulent documents were printed from his emails.
“Checks on his profile revealed that Enoch had impersonated one Sandra James and swindled the complainant of $1,000 using fictitious emails,” the prosecutor added.
The defendant had pleaded guilty to the charge.
In his judgment, Justice Khobo found the defendant guilty of the charge preferred against him.
The judge sentenced Enoch to 12 months in a correctional centre, with an option of a fine of N100,000.
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He also ordered the forfeiture of the iPhone 12 and Infinix S5 phone recovered from the convict at the time of the arrest to the Federal Government, and to restitute $1,000 to his victim, Kingsley Matthew.
The Police Command in Delta State has affirmed that its patrol teams “have encountered a gang of armed bandits who laid wait in the bush to attack and kidnap unsuspecting motorists” and neutralised the suspects.
This was contained in a statement issued by the command’s spokesman, DSP Bright Edafe, copies of which were made available to journalists in Warri.
The statement noted that following public outcry on the presence of suspected kidnappers in the Jesse forests along the Warri-Benin highway, the state Commissioner of Police, CP Wale Abass on September 12 directed the deployment of operatives of the Special Anti-Kidnapping and Cyber Crime Squad team among others to the area.
According to the statement, “On September 18, 2023, during a joint patrol along Jesse – Igueleba in Edo State, the team encountered a gang of armed bandits who laid wait in the bush to attack and kidnap unsuspecting motorists.
“The hoodlums who apparently sighted the police team, fired at the front tyre of the lead pickup van, thus demobilizing the vehicle.”
The PPRO stated that the armed gangsters eventually succumbed to the superior firepower of the policemen who pursued them into the deep forest during which four suspected kidnappers were fatally wounded.
One AK47 rifle with 25 rounds of live ammunition were recovered from the gang while the wounded suspects were taken to the hospital for treatment, where they were later certified dead.