A Federal High Court in Lagos on Monday remanded two men, Elvis Edokpiawe and Kelly Enogieru, in the Ikoyi correctional centre for alleged identity theft and $150,000 fraud.
The defendants who were arraigned before Justice Akintayo Aluko are facing four counts bordering on conspiracy, identity theft, impersonation, obtaining by false pretence and unlawful fund conversion.
Justice Aluko issued the remand order after the two defendants pleaded not guilty to the separate four counts, marked FHC/L/1009c/204 and FHC/L/1010c/204, brought against them by the police.
The prosecutor, Zebedee Arekhandia, told the court that the two defendants and others still at large committed the alleged offences between 2021 and December 12, 2024, in Benin City, Edo State, and the Lekki area, Lagos State.
Arekhandia told the court that the first defendant, Edokpiawe, 23 years old, committed illegal acts between 2021 and December 12, 2024.
He told the court that Edokpiawe impersonated Thomas Lindagard of Demark, who is currently in the Mediterranean Sea and used his name on social media platforms such as Facebook, Whatsapp, Kakoatalk app, Instagram, and other Internet platforms, to defraud unsuspecting victims to the tune of $10, 000.
The prosecutor also told the court that the second defendant, Kelly Enogieru, 23 years old, impersonated one Captain Donald Ryg, of the United States of America Army on a peacekeeping mission in Africa and Syria, and used his name to defraud his victims of the sum of $140,000.
He said that the first defendant, Edokpiawe, with intent to gain advantage for himself, obtained money by false pretence from unsuspecting people in Japan and other countries, fraudulently and dishonestly committed identity theft and impersonated himself on Facebook, Whatsapp, Kakoatalk app, Instagram, and other Internet platforms, as “Thomas Lindagard of Demark, who is currently in the Mediterranean Sea.
Arekhandia told the court that Enogieru fraudulently obtained $140,000, from his victims in China and other countries, on the pretext that he needed the money for a peacekeeping mission, a representation he knew to be false.
According to the prosecutor, the offences committed contravened Sections 8(a), (3) of the Advance Fee and other-fraud Related Offences Act, 2006, Section 27 (1) (b) of the Cybercrime (Prohibition, Prevention, etc.) Act, 2015 (as amended in 2024), Section 22 (2) (a), (b) (i), (ii) and (iii) of the Cybercrime (Prohibition, Prevention, etc.) Act, 2015 (as amended in 2024) and punishable under Section 1(3) of the Advance Fee Fraud and Other Fraud Related Offences Act, 2006. Section 18 (2)(a)(b) (c) and d) is punishable under Section 18 (3) of the Money Laundering (Prohibition) Act, 2022.
However, the defendants pleaded not guilty to the charges against them.
Following their no-guilty plea, their lawyer, Mr. Douglas Ogbankwa, informed the court that he had filed bail applications for his clients and that it had not been served on the prosecutor.
In his response, the prosecutor told the court that he was served with the applications while in court, and needed time to file his response.
Consequently, Justice Aluko adjourned the matter to December 27, 2024, for the hearing of the bail applications, and then ordered that the two defendants be remanded till the hearing and determination of their bail applications.
