Justice A. I. Ekwo of the Federal High Court sitting in Calabar, Cross Rivers State has convicted and sentenced one Patrick Egbe Ekpolo to two years imprisonment. The convict who was ordered by the judge to restitute the entire sum N10.7 million to the victims however gave the convict an option of One Hundred Thousand Naira fine in lieu of the sentence.
The convict was first arraigned sometimes in August, 2015 by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, on a three-count charge bordering on issuance of dud cheque.
He later changed his plea from not guilty to guilty on an amended one count charge bordering on issuance of dud cheque to the tune of N10, 700, 000.00 (Ten Million, Seven Hundred Thousand Naira).
The charge reads: “that you Patrick Egbe Ekpolo on or about the 27th day of June, 2014, at Calabar within the Jurisdiction of this honourable Court with intent to defraud did obtain the sum of Four Million, Two Hundred Thousand Naira only (N4,200,000.00) only from Ikuroye Magnus and Nonso Ndefo on one hand and Six Million, Five Hundred Thousand Naira only (N6,500,000.00) from Uzochukwu Amaukwu under the pretence that a contract was awarded to you and the monies will be used for the purpose of buying and supplying Automotive Gas Oil(AGO) to Unicement in Calabar, a pretext you knew to be false and thereby committed an offence contrary to section 1(1)(a) of the Advance Fee Fraud and other Fraud Related Offences Act 2006 and punishable under section 1(3) of the same Act.
