Court sentences man to 6 months imprisonment for impersonation

Justice Peter Mallong of the Federal High Court, Kaduna, on Monday sentenced one Mustapha Zilani, to six months imprisonment for impersonation.

Zilani was arraigned by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Kaduna Zonal Office, on offences bordering on fraud and impersonation.

Justice Mallong, sentenced Zilani after he pleaded guilty to the charge.

“It is my belief that Zilani is now remorseful of his action and willing to turn a new leaf.

“He is sentenced to six months in prison, to serve as deterrent to others in the act,” the judge said.

Mallong, however, gave the convict an option of N50,000 fine and warned him to desist from any crime.

Earlier, Counsel to the EFCC, E.K. Garba, told the court that the convict committed the crime sometime in Nov. 2019 in Kaduna.

According to the prosecutor, the agency’s operatives apprehended Zilani after receiving a credible intelligence that the convict was operating with a “deceptive” email address to take undue advantage of unsuspecting foreigners.

The prosecutor also revealed that many dubious documents of how the convict had defrauded foreigners were printed out from his email address.

He stated that the offence contravened the provisions of Section 22(2)(b)(i) of the Cybercrime (Prohibition Prevention, Etc.) Act 2015 and punishable under the same Act.