The owner of a school in Uyo called the Cybercrime Training Centre, which is also known as Hustle Kingdom, named Ikemesit Edet, has been given a ten-year prison sentence for committing fraud.
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission in Uyo arraigned Edet for impersonation, love scam, hacking/editing of social media accounts, and private criminal tutoring. This happened on Wednesday.
According to the EFCC, Edet pleaded guilty and was then jailed on Wednesday. He was given an option of paying a N2,000,000 fine for each count.
The charges against Edet stated that he permitted the use of the premises as a cybercrime academy, also known as Hustle Kingdom, where he taught young Nigerians cybercrime techniques for hacking, impersonation, and obtaining money by false pretence. He was charged with offenses related to the Advance Fee Fraud and Other Fraud Related Offences Act 2006.
Edet was also charged with taking possession of N15,000,000, which was known to be proceeds from cybercrime. This was contrary to the Money laundering (Prohibition) Act 2022.
The prosecution counsel, Joshua Abolarin, asked the court to convict and sentence Edet after he pleaded guilty to the charges.
Abolarin also requested that the court order the forfeiture of all the items recovered from Edet at the point of arrest.
Meanwhile, the defense counsel, Francis Ezike, requested the court to be lenient when sentencing the defendant.
In the judgment, Justice Ojukwu convicted Edet and sentenced him to a five-year prison term on each count, with an option of a N2,000,000 fine on each count.
Ojukwu also ordered that all the items recovered from the convict, including 13 laptops, a gold-colored Toyota Corolla, a Lexus Jeep RX 300, and about 3,080.25 square meters of land located at Ibiaku Obio Ndobo Village, Uruan Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom State, be forfeited to the Federal Government of Nigeria as exhibits.
