The duo of Egbearo Friday and Samson Akpaibor have been sentenced to seven years imprisonment for attempting to obtain a sum of N2m from their victim in a fake Globacom promo lottery.
The jail term was handed to the fraudsters over the weekend by Justice A. M Liman of the Federal High Court, Benin who found them guilty on all 17-count charge that borders on obtaining by false pretence, preferred against them by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
In a statement by the EFCC, Egbearo and Akpaibor were first arraigned on June 17, 2013 following their arrest in the wake of a complaint by one Dr. Christopher Onwubuemeli. He alleged that Akpaibor Samson and others, sometime in August, 2011 sent him an SMS message purported to have emanated from Globacom, informing him that he had won N2m in an ongoing recharge and win promo.
He also alleged that he was asked to pay some amount of money as taxes and surcharges before he could claim his prize money.
On conclusion of investigation, the case was duly charged to court with the accused persons pleading not guilty to the charges.
However on April 9, 2014, after almost one year of trial, the defence informed the court that the accused persons wanted to change their plea on the strength of the prosecution’s case against them.
On May 28, 2014, Egbearo Friday and Akpaibor Samson pleaded guilty to all 17 counts of the charge preferred against them and were sentenced to seven years imprisonment on each of the 17 counts. The sentences will however run concurrently.
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