Nigerian musician Chinedu Okoli, better known as Flavour, is having the last laugh after a university graduate who impersonated him to dupe a U.S. citizen out of $53,000 was sentenced to two years in prison.
The sentencing was handed down by Justice Dehinde I. Dipeolu of the Federal High Court sitting in Ikoyi, Lagos, on Tuesday, September 3, 2024.
Ikpaka Courage, a graduate of Philosophy, was arraigned by the Lagos Directorate of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, on a two-count charge bordering on cybercrimes and money laundering.
According to EFCC, Courage committed the offence in April 2021 when he unlawfully obtained the said sum from one Mrs Yvette M. Thompson.
The offence is contrary to Section 18(2)(d) and punishable under section 18( 3) of the Money Laundering (Prevention and Prohibition) Act,2022.
He pleaded “guilty” to the charges when they were read to him, and following his guilty plea, the prosecution counsel, S.I Suleiman, presented a witness, Azibagiri Dan Ekpar, an operative of the EFCC, to review the facts of the case.
The defendant, Ekpar said, was arrested in Lagos on June 10, 2024.
“Upon his arrest by operatives of the Lagos Directorate, he volunteered his statement.
In his statement, he confessed to have been involved in a dating scam, and that he used his platform to impersonate Chinedu Okoli a.k.a. Flavour N’abania.
He also confessed to having obtained the sum of $53,000 from one Mrs. Yvette M. Thompson under the pretence that he would perform on her birthday in Washington DC in July 2021,” Ekpar added.
