Justice Agatha Anulika Okeke of the Federal High Court, Uyo, Akwa Ibom State, has convicted and sentenced one Nwalozie Onyebuchi Julius, alias Dr. Godwin Emefiele, to three years imprisonment without an option of fine.
Julius had claimed to be the Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
The convict was arraigned by the Uyo Zonal Office of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on a one-count charge, bordering on impersonation and obtaining by false pretence to the tune of N4.5million.
He pleaded guilty to the charge and Joshua Abolarin, the prosecuting counsel prayed the court to review the facts of the case through a prosecution witness, Haliru Abubakar Bagudo, an operative of the EFCC.
In his judgment, Justice Okeke said she was satisfied with the evidence before the court that the defendant was guilty as charged.
“Prosecution has proven beyond reasonable doubt that the defendant, Nwalozie Onyebuchi Julius, committed the offence as charged. I therefore convict you accordingly.
“The court equally takes cognisance of the spree with which fraudsters defraud innocent citizens and therefore sentence you Nwalozie Onyebuchi Julius to three years imprisonment with effect from date of your arrest.”
The convict forfeited his Hp laptop, the instrument of crime, as well as the N1million recovered from him to the Federal Government.
Nwalozie’s journey to jail began on December 6, 2019 when he was arrested based on reliable intelligence on the activities of internet fraudsters, operating in Owerri, the Imo State capital.
The convict confessed to the crime and a forensic analysis of the HP laptop recovered from him further implicated him as several incriminating documents of false pretence and fraudulent extortions were printed from his laptop which he also admitted, emanated from him.
Julius’ speciality was Business Email Compromise (BEC) and his modus operandi involved searching for email addresses via Google search and sending convincing emails to his victims.
He also confessed to have used emefielegodwin586@yahoo.com purportedly in defrauding one Omar Deep, who thought he was actually dealing with the real CBN Governor.
