Justice Sikiru Oyinloye of the Kwara State High Court, Ilorin has sentenced 20-year-old Udoh Sunday Okon to one-year imprisonment for defrauding an American, Kimberly, to the tune of $500 on Facebook.

The Ilorin Command of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), on Wednesday, August 25, secured the conviction of Udoh for offenses bordering on Facebook lottery scam. Udoh, an undergraduate who hails from Akwa Ibom, was prosecuted on a one-count charge, to which he pleaded guilty.

The charge reads

“That you, Udoh Sunday Okon (Christopher Wray), sometime in March 2021 at Ilorin, within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court did cheat by personation when you pretended to be one Christopher Wray a white male with +18315088635 as your WhatsApp business line and fraudulently deceived Kimberly, an American, to send $500.00 ( Five Hundred United States Dollars) worth of eBay gift card to you after you made him believe that he won $1,000,000.00 (One Million Dollars) Facebook lottery and you thereby committed an offense contrary to Section 321 of the Penal Code and punishable under Section 324 of the Penal Code.”

Following his plea, Sesan Ola, counsel to the EFCC, prayed the court to convict the defendant and sentence him based on his plea and the evidence tendered before the court. 

Justice Oyinloye pronounced the defendant guilty of the offense and sentenced him to a term of one year in prison. However, the judge offered the convict a punishment of N200,000 (Two Hundred Thousand Naira Only) as an alternative.

In addition, the court ordered the forfeiture of N206, 000 draft raised as restitution by the convict and the iPhone which he used in perpetrating the crime to the Nigerian Government.