The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission has secured the conviction of Henry Nathaniel Ekanem, a final-year student at the University of Port Harcourt.
According to a statement on the anti-graft agency’s X.com page, Justice A.T. Mohammed of the Federal High Court in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, convicted Ekanem and sentenced him to 14 years in jail for internet fraud on Wednesday.
According to the announcement, the student was sentenced on Wednesday, October 30, 2024, after being arraigned by the EFCC’s Port Harcourt Zonal Directorate on seven charges of collecting money under false pretences and impersonation.
The agency explained how Ekanem successfully duped Diana Roskov and others by imitating Coran Capshaw, the manager of musician Chris Stapleton, over WhatsApp and Instagram interactions.
One of the charges read, “That you, Henry Nathaniel Ekanem, on or about 17th September 2024, at Choba in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, within the jurisdiction of this honourable court, with intent to defraud, did obtain the sum of Twenty-Two United States of America dollars ($22) from Diana Roskov by falsely representing yourself as Coran Capshaw, manager of singer Chris Stapleton—a representation you knew to be false—and thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 1(1)(a) and punishable under Section 1(3) of the Advance Fee Fraud and Other Fraud-Related Offences Act 2006.”
When the charges were read, Ekanem entered a plea of guilty. In light of his plea, prosecution lawyer A. Abubakar produced witnesses and documents as evidence, which the court admitted as exhibits.
He then urged the court to convict and condemn the offender. F.T. Fred-Boufini, the defendant’s attorney, did not challenge the prosecution’s request but instead urged for leniency, pointing out that the defendant was a first-time offender with no past criminal history.
Justice Mohammed sentenced the defendant to two years in prison on each of the seven counts, with the option of paying a fine of N200,000 into the Federal Government’s Consolidated Revenue Account.
Additionally, the judge ruled that all mobile phones confiscated from the student be forfeited to the government as profits of crime.
The convict must also submit an affidavit of good behaviour to the court.
Ekanem’s path to the Correctional Centre began in September 2024, when EFCC operatives detained him in Choba, Port Harcourt, for online fraud and other connected offences.
