Justice K. Dagat of the Federal High Court Maiduguri, Borno State on Tuesday, 17 June 2025 convicted and sentenced the duo of Samuel Okoro and Lucky Dauda to eight years imprisonment each.
The defendants were arraigned on two -count separate charges by the Maiduguri Zonal Directorate of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, for the offences of money laundering and impersonation.
The charge against Okoro reads: “That you, Samuel Okoro between 2022 and 2024 at Maiduguri, Borno State within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court did directly take possession of United States of American Dollars denominated Cash App and Gift Cards worth about $4,000 (Four Thousand United States Dollars) foreign nationals like: Charlotte, Sajid Ali Jaan, Carrie Gurthrie, Ruben Rodriguez amongst others which upon conversion to naira amounted to an aggregate sum of N5,000,000.00 (Five Million Naira) only paid into your First Bank Plc account No. 3187995774, Samuel Okoro being the naira equivalent value for cash app and gift cards which you knew or reasonably ought to have known is proceeds of your fraud or form part of proceeds of unlawful act and thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 18(2) (d) of the Money Laundering Prevention and Prohibition Act 2022 and punishable under Section 18(3) of the same Act.”
That of Dauda reads: “That you, Lucky Dauda between 2020 and 2024 at Maiduguri, Borno State within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court did directly take possession of aggregate sum of $20,615.00 (Twenty Thousand Six Hundred and Fifteen cents United States of American Dollars) into your Guaranty Trust Bank Plc account No. 0165705344 Dauda Lucky, being the value for United States of American dollars denominated cash app, google play, visa, walmart, payPal and gift cards etc. that you fraudulently received which you knew or reasonably ought to have known is proceeds of your fraud or form part of proceeds of unlawful act and thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 18(2) (d) of the Money Laundering Prevention and Prohibition Act 2022 and punishable under Section 18(3) of the same Act.”
The defendants pleaded guilty when the charges were read to them by the court.
Counsel for the prosecution, Abdulmalik D. Aliyu prayed the court to convict them as charged, while defence counsel O. C Nwankwo and A. Musa prayed the court to temper justice with mercy in sentencing the defendants.
Justice Dagat thereafter convicted and sentenced Okoro and Dauda to four years imprisonment on count one and two with an option of N100,000.00 ( One Hundred Thousand Naira only) on each count.
The judge further ordered the forfeiture of the monies they benefited as well as iPhone 15 pro max, Samsung galaxy A34 and Samsung galaxy S to the Federal Government of Nigeria.
The convicts’ journey to jail began when they were arrested in Maiduguri following credible intelligence on their fraudulent internet activities.
