The High Court of Akwa Ibom State, sitting in Ikot Ekpene, has sentenced a cultist, Innocent Ntokon and a lecturer at Akwa Ibom State Polytechnic, Abel Udo Jacob, to various prison terms for their roles in financial extortion amounting to over ₦50,000,000.
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The trial judge, Justice Augustine Odokwo, on Wednesday, found the accused guilty of subjecting a local businessman, Edikan Jacob Jackson, to a “merciless extortion scheme” leading to loss of over ₦50,000,000 and the near-collapse of his legacy family business.
The prosecution proved that between 2016 and 2020, Innocent Ntokon used his position as a leader in Klans Konfraternity to terrorise the victim.
The court heard harrowing testimony of how Ntokon sent armed “enforcers” to the victim’s shops and used death threats against the victim’s mother and sisters to compel monthly payments.
The convicted lecturer, who holds a Post-Graduate Degree in Engineering and currently teaches at Akwa Ibom State Polytechnic, acted as the “financial clearinghouse” for the syndicate.
The court rejected his defence that he believed the millions passing through his account were for “NDDC roofing contracts,” describing the claim as “totally not in accord with common sense.”
At the end of the two- hour judgment, the defendants pleaded for mercy.
The Court, in considering their plea for mercy, noted, “The victim was psychologically terrorised for four years and lost his father partly due to a lack of funds caused by this very extortion,” emphasising that the court must weigh the gravity of the psychological trauma inflicted on the victims.
Justice Odokwo, while evaluating the evidence, described Ntokon as a “predator who used the cloak of a trader to hide the heart of a hardened and merciless cultist and extortionist.”
Innocent Ntokon was convicted for 8 years on counts of demanding with menace, stealing, terrorism and cultism, while the lecturer bagged a maximum sentence of 3 years for demanding with menace, stealing, and terrorism.
The various jail terms are to run concurrently
In a move to ensure “crime does not pay,” the Court ordered the convicts to jointly and severally pay ₦25,000,000 to the victim.
The Court also ordered that a Toyota Avensis and a Mercedes-Benz, identified as proceeds of the crime, be forfeited to the State and be auctioned to provide partial restitution to the nominal complainant.
In January, a Lagos-based mechanical engineer, Uchenna Nwachukwu, accused police officers attached to the Area J Police Command of extorting N250,000 from him during a stop-and-search operation in the Ajah area of Lagos State.
Our correspondent gathered that the incident occurred on Saturday night around the Oral Estate axis.
Recounting the incident to our correspondent on Tuesday, Nwachukwu said he was stopped by four policemen while driving home after dropping off some friends.
According to him, the officers conducted a thorough search of both his person and his vehicle but allegedly found nothing incriminating before demanding money from him.
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