The Uyo Zonal Command of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, on Wednesday, March 9, 2022, secured the conviction and sentencing of one Nsikan Solomon Ibanga before Justice Agatha Okeke of the Federal High Court, sitting in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State.
Ibanga, who specialized in romance scam, began his journey to jail on July 5, 2018 when the Commission received a petition from one Rosemary Monday Etim alleging that she was defrauded by the defendant.
Investigations into the matter showed that the defendant had on two occasions accessed the victim’s bank account and diverted N110, 000.00 (One Hundred and Ten Thousand Naira) into his personal account, without her consent.
According to the petitioner, she realized that she had been duped, when she accessed her account and discovered that the balance was below what she had left in the account. The victim said she requested a bank statement that clearly showed the defendant as the recipient of the money that was fraudulently removed from her account.
Ibanga was subsequently arrested on January 31, 2019 and arraigned on February 8, 2019. He pleaded “not guilty”, as his trial immediately commenced with the prosecution counsel, Nwandu Ukoha, presenting two witnesses and tendering various documents which were admitted in evidence, including a bank account statement, belonging to the victim.
The prosecution closed its case on February 12, 2020.
Delivering judgment, the court held that the prosecution had proven its case beyond reasonable doubt and convicted Ibanga on the four counts.
He was sentenced to 5 years imprisonment on each count, to run concurrently from the date of his arrest.
One of the counts reads: “That you Nsikan Solomon Ibanga on or about June 2018 at Uyo within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court with intent to defraud did fraudulently make use of the electronic password to impersonate on Rose Monday Etim to gain advantage from same by transferring the sum of N100,000.00 ( One hundred thousand naira, only) from Zenith bank account 2083822038 of Rose Monday Etim to your own Zenith account 2086134204 and thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 22 (2) (3) (a) (b) (c) Cybercrimes (Prohibition, Prevention etc) Act, 2015 and punishable under Section 22 (1) of the same Act”.