Five ‘yahoo boys’ jailed In Calabar

Justice Saleh Shuaibu of the Federal High Court, Calabar, Cross River State, on Thursday, December 12, 2019, jailed five cyber criminals, known as ‘Yahoo Boys’ after they pleaded guilty to one-count charge preferred against them by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Uyo Zonal Office.

The convicts are Omengala Emmanuel (alias Frank Hoffman), Obonga Valentine (alias Patrick Seaman), Segun Jude (alias Hal Burlington), Omengala Paul (alias Christopher Mason) and Promise Nkanga.

Emmanuel got six months sentence or option of N100,000 fine for obtaining property by false pretence using a fictitious Instagram account (FrankHO77) and presenting himself as Frank Hoffman, a United States of America citizen.

Paul got one year sentence or N200,000 fine for falsely portraying himself as one Katherine McKinnon on Instagram and obtained the sum of $1,824.40 which the court ordered him to return.

Valentine and Jude got the same sentence as Emmanuel for impersonation, while Nkanga was slammed with six months imprisonment or N150,000 fine for impersonating one Hal Burlington from Beijing to fleece unsuspecting persons of their hard-earned wealth.

Aside the prison terms, the convicts forfeited the instruments of their crimes to The Federal Government, including three iPhone X phones, Apple wristwatch, Apple Mac Book laptop, iPhone X Max, Infinix Hot 5 phone, iPhone 7 plus, HP laptop, iPhone 7, iPhone 6s, iPhone 7 Plus, MacBook Pro laptop and Toyota Camry salon car with registration number APP-514-DF.