Peace Oladapo 
Gavel and scales
Emmanuel Victor, a 100-level part-time Computer Science student, was sentenced to 18 months in prison by an Ikeja Special Offences Court on Thursday for engaging in an online dating scam.
Victor who pleaded guilty to the allegation of possessing a false document brought against him by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, (EFCC), was sentenced to eighteen months in prison by Judge Rahman Oshodi.
Oshodi, however, offered the prisoner the choice of paying a fine of four million naira.
When announcing the verdict, Oshodi who expressed his belief that the convict had not committed the crime out of need promised to cut his sentence by twenty per cent.
Oshodi declared that the convict would give up to the federal government all of the things that were taken from him, including the phones, the ATM card, and the manager’s check.
Earlier, during his fact-finding hearing, Mr Abubakar Dambua, the EFCC’s attorney, told the court that the agency had received an intelligence report on September 15, 2023, regarding the convict’s and others’ fraudulent actions.
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According to Dambuwa, the criminal was taken into custody following a raid, adding that among the things taken from him were a deep blue iPhone 13, a Samsung phone, an ATM card, a manager’s cheque and fake documents.
Dambua then attempted to present all of the items that had been found on the prisoner as evidence in front of the judge.
The defence attorney, Ms. E. A. Ukpai, raised no objections to the goods that were found on the guilty person.
When the judge questioned the prisoner about how he carried out the scam, he revealed to the court that he made a fictitious Facebook account under the name “Agent Fred Smith.”
The convict said: “I asked the unsuspecting victims to apply for the Social Economic Grant Programme and I asked them to pay for processing and delivery.
” I used $7,000 to resettle my family. We used to stay in a plank house and l used the money to provide better accommodations and pay for my school fees.
“I am sorry for my fraudulent activities and I promise not to go back to crime if given another chance.”
