25-year-old serial hacker convicted for fraud in Gombe
A 25-year-old serial hacker, Chidi Onuoha, has been convicted by a Gombe State High Court after he was dragged by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) for fraud.
Onuoha was on Thursday, found guilty of the charges levelled against him after he was arrested by the commission following a petition it received from one Joseph Goje, a Nigerian student studying in the United Kingdom, on June 1, 2016.
EFCC spokesman, Mr. Wilson Uwujaren, said in a statement issued in Abuja, that Onuoha was convicted on Thursday by Justice Beatrice Iliya on a two-count of advance fee fraud.
According to Uwujaren, Goje had accused the convict of conniving with one Chinedu, who is currently at large, of hacking into his GTBank account. He alleged that they withdrew N1.5million in the process.
It only took Goje’s contact of his bank to lodge complaints, before he was informed that his account had been tampered with by an undisclosed third party.
“Subsequently, he petitioned the EFCC, which immediately swung into action, Onuoha was arrested and charged to court and he pleaded guilty to the charges,” the EFCC spokesman said in the statement.
Uwujaren further said that upon Onuoha’s “guilty” plea during his trial, counsel to EFCC, Israel Akande, urged the court to convict him and sentence him to jail.
But Abubakar Bormi, the defense counsel, pleaded for clemency on the ground that the 25-year-old accused showed remorse and had made restitution by refunding the money.
“In consideration of the defense counsel’s plea, the judge commuted the sentence to N100, 000 fine on each of the two counts,” Uwujaren said.
“She ordered the convict to be remanded in prison custody till he paid the fine.”
