Four Internet Fraudsters Jailed

Justice Muawiyah Idris of the Federal Capital Territory, FCT High Court, sitting in Nyanya on Thursday, July 25, 2019 sentenced four internet fraudsters popularly known as yahoo-yahoo boys to different jail terms.

Those sentenced include, Chinaka Chijoke, a serving member of the National Youth Service Corps, Okafor Divine, Kelvin John and Tunde Azeez.
         
They had pleaded “guilty” on July 22, 2019 to separate charges bordering on cheating, impersonation and obtaining by false pretence, which are offences that run contrary to Sections 321, 320(a) and Section 95 and 322 of the Panel Code Law of Northern Nigeria 1990 and punishable under Section 324 of the same Law, and were convicted accordingly.

At the time of arraignment, both the prosecution and defence, informed the court of a plea bargain agreement, which was duly signed by both parties and urged the court to convict and sentence them in line with the agreement.

However, delivering judgement, Justice Idris held that the court was not bound by the plea bargain agreement according to Section 2709(11) of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act, ACJA 2015 and therefore, sentenced Chinaka to four  years in prison, while Okafor, Kelvin and Azeez were sentenced to three years in prison.

They were all ordered to forfeit the car, laptops and mobile phones recovered from them to the relevant authority.