Justice Garba Umar of the Federal High Court Benin City on Friday ordered that Akhigbe Gabriel, an SS II student, be remanded in prison custody for alleged impersonation and internet fraud.
Gabriel was remanded along with Adesuwa Precious, Ogheneteru Pezu, Kenneth Owa, and Isaac Nkemdule until the next adjourned date.
They were accused of defrauding one Joy to the tune of N150, 000, which was allegedly transferred into a bank account of one of them.
The action was allegedly committed contrary to Section 15; sub-Section 2 of the Money Laundering Prohibition Act.
Gabriel, a.k.a. Matt Chan, who is facing a four-count charge, allegedly impersonated an American, Matthew Chan and sent male nude pictures to another American Candy Cerfi, contrary to section 22, 14 sub-Section 2 of the Cyber Crimes Act of 2015.
The judge particularly berated Gabriel, who pleaded guilty to the charges.
He expressed worry that the accused would never hold any public office in future “after making himself a convict,” instead of focusing on his studies and completing his education.
In another development, the court also remanded one Blessing Francis in Ikpoba-Okah Local Government Area of Edo in prison custody until June.
Francis was allegedly caught with a 9.5kg of cannabis sativa wrapped in a bag in contravention of Section 19 of the NDLEA Act CAP N30 of 2014.
The two cases were adjourned to June, when trial are expected to commence.