{"id":162555,"date":"2025-05-15T10:43:09","date_gmt":"2025-05-15T09:43:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/uncategorized\/kaduna-court-sentences-two-internet-fraudsters"},"modified":"2025-05-15T11:51:41","modified_gmt":"2025-05-15T10:51:41","slug":"kaduna-court-sentences-two-internet-fraudsters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/kaduna-court-sentences-two-internet-fraudsters","title":{"rendered":"Kaduna court sentences two internet fraudsters"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600\"><strong>Africa-Press &#8211; Nigeria. <\/strong><\/span>Justice Rilwan Aikawa of the Federal High Court in Kaduna has sentenced two Internet fraudsters, Samuel Ezekiel Godfrey and Yahaya Mustapha, to prison terms of two and five years respectively, each with an option to pay fines.<\/p>\n<p>Godfrey, who used the alias Dixon Kelvin, was sentenced to two years in prison or a fine of N500,000. Mustapha, on the other hand, received a five-year jail term or a fine of N300,000.<\/p>\n<p>Both men were convicted on separate one-count charges filed by the Kaduna Zonal Command of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), relating to criminal impersonation, cybercrime, and money laundering.<\/p>\n<p>Godfrey was found guilty of using a fake Facebook profile to fraudulently obtain N191,580 in Bida, Niger State, earlier this year. His offence violated Section 22(2)(b)(i) of the Cybercrimes (Prohibition, Prevention, etc.) Act, 2015.<\/p>\n<p>Mustapha, using the false identity \u201cMike Benjamin,\u201d claimed to be an American citizen and defrauded victims of $100 via Facebook in April 2025. His actions also contravened the same sections of the Cybercrimes Act.<\/p>\n<p>Both defendants pleaded guilty during the trial. The prosecution counsel, M.U. Gadaka, urged the court to convict and sentence them accordingly, while their defense lawyers requested leniency, citing their clients\u2019 remorse.<\/p>\n<p>In addition to their sentences, Justice Aikawa ordered Godfrey to forfeit the N191,580 he obtained illegally and the iPhone used in committing the crime to the Federal Government. Mustapha was similarly ordered to surrender his iPhone 14 Pro and to restitute the $100 to his victim.<\/p>\n<p>The EFCC arrested both men in Bida Local Government Area following credible intelligence on their fraudulent internet activities.<\/p>\n<p>The commission continues to warn the public against engaging in cybercrime and urges vigilance in online transactions.<\/p>\n<p><strong>For More News And Analysis About <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Nigeria<\/span> Follow <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Africa-Press<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Africa-Press &#8211; Nigeria. Justice Rilwan Aikawa of the Federal High Court in Kaduna has sentenced two Internet fraudsters, Samuel Ezekiel Godfrey and Yahaya Mustapha, to prison terms of two and five years respectively, each with an option to pay fines. Godfrey, who used the alias Dixon Kelvin, was sentenced to two years in prison or [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":162554,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,14],"tags":[69,68,254],"class_list":["post-162555","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-policy","tag-court","tag-efcc","tag-nigeria"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.1 (Yoast SEO v27.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Kaduna court sentences two internet fraudsters - Nigeria<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Justice Rilwan Aikawa of the Federal High Court in Kaduna has sentenced two Internet fraudsters, Samuel Ezekiel Godfrey ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/kaduna-court-sentences-two-internet-fraudsters\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Kaduna court sentences two internet fraudsters\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Justice Rilwan Aikawa of the Federal High Court in Kaduna has sentenced two Internet fraudsters, Samuel Ezekiel Godfrey ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/kaduna-court-sentences-two-internet-fraudsters\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Nigeria\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-05-15T09:43:09+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-05-15T10:51:41+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sites\/3\/2025\/05\/sm_1747293727.507737.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"880\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"587\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/kaduna-court-sentences-two-internet-fraudsters#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/kaduna-court-sentences-two-internet-fraudsters\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Kaduna court sentences two internet fraudsters\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-05-15T09:43:09+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-05-15T10:51:41+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/kaduna-court-sentences-two-internet-fraudsters\"},\"wordCount\":296,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/kaduna-court-sentences-two-internet-fraudsters#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sites\/3\/2025\/05\/sm_1747293727.507737.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"court\",\"EFCC\",\"Nigeria\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"Policy\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/kaduna-court-sentences-two-internet-fraudsters#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/kaduna-court-sentences-two-internet-fraudsters\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/kaduna-court-sentences-two-internet-fraudsters\",\"name\":\"Kaduna court sentences two internet fraudsters - 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