The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission has convicted Henry Nathaniel Ekanem, a final-year undergraduate at the University of Port Harcourt.

According to a statement on the anti-graft agency’s X.com page, Justice A.T. Mohammed of the Federal High Court in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, convicted Ekanem and sentenced him to 14 years in jail for internet fraud on Wednesday.

According to the statement, Ekanem was sentenced on Wednesday, October 30, 2024, following his arraignment by the Port Harcourt Zonal Directorate of the EFCC on seven charges of collecting money under false pretenses and impersonation.

The agency explained how Ekanem duped Diana Roskov and others by imitating Coran Capshaw, the manager of musician Chris Stapleton, via WhatsApp and Instagram exchanges.

One of the charges read, “That you, Henry Nathaniel Ekanem, on or about 17th September 2024, at Choba in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, within the jurisdiction of this honourable court, with intent to defraud, did obtain the sum of Twenty-Two United States of America dollars ($22) from Diana Roskov by falsely representing yourself as Coran Capshaw, manager of singer Chris Stapleton—a representation you knew to be false—and thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 1(1)(a) and punishable under Section 1(3) of the Advance Fee Fraud and Other Fraud-Related Offences Act 2006.”

When the charges were read, Ekanem entered a plea of guilty. In light of his plea, prosecution lawyer A. Abubakar produced witnesses and documents as evidence, which the court admitted as exhibits. He then urged the court to convict and condemn the offender.

F.T. Fred-Boufini, the defendant’s attorney, did not challenge the prosecution’s request but instead urged for leniency, pointing out that the defendant was a first-time offender with no past criminal history.

Justice Mohammed sentenced the defendant to two years in jail for each of the seven offenses, with the option of paying a fine of N200,000 per count into the Consolidated Revenue Account of the Federal Government of Nigeria.

Additionally, the judge ruled that all mobile phones confiscated from the offender be forfeited to the government as profits of crime. The convict must also submit an affidavit of good behaviour to the court.

Ekanem’s path to the Correctional Centre began in September 2024, when EFCC operatives detained him in Choba, Port Harcourt, for online fraud and other connected offenses.