Justice Simon Amobeda of the Federal High Court sitting in Calabar, Cross Rivers State, on Thursday, September 26, 2019, convicted and sentenced Six Facebook Hackers to one-year imprisonment each, with an option of fine of Five hundred thousand naira (N500,000.00). The convicts are; Lawrence Nnamdi-Mba Ebesike, Prince E. Udeh, Chijioke Victor, Promise Odimba, Ugbor Ifeanyi and Prince Anthony.
According to the statement by the anti-graft commission, the six facebook hackers were arraigned on Wednesday, September 25, 2019, on a separate one-count charge, bordering on impersonation and fraud, before the same court and they all pleaded “guilty”. Given their pleas, the prosecution counsel, Usman Shehu, informed the court of the plea bargain agreements entered and executed by the prosecution and the defence.
The matter was thereafter adjourned to September 26, 2019, for conviction and sentence while the convicts were remanded in Afokang prison, Calabar.
Delivering judgement on Thursday, Justice Amobeda convicted all the six facebook hackers and sentenced each to one-year imprisonment, with the option of N500,000 fine. He ordered that the convict “shall forfeit all the items recovered during the arrest.” The items are; 6 laptops, 12 sophisticated mobile phones, 1 International Passport, 4 Airtel Sim Packs, 3 MTN Sim Packs, 2 Glo Sim Packs,1 Smile Router and 2 Modems.
The convicts ran into troubles on September 2, 2019, when operatives of Uyo Zonal Office of the (EFCC) arrested them in a two-bedroom apartment, located on 54 Church Road, off Calabar Itu Express Way, Uyo, Akwa Ibom State, following an intelligence report on their nefarious activities in the town.
During interrogation, the suspects said the apartment which served as their home and office, was rented by the kingpin, Ebesike, for the purpose of training facebook hackers.
Confessing to the crime, Ebesike who claimed to be a musician with the stage name ‘Lawre Blue’, gave a detailed account of how they carried out their operations on Facebook.
“I am into internet fraud. Part of how I operate is, I edit Facebook accounts, go to google and search for pictures of United State military personnel.”