A lecturer at the Akwa Ibom State Polytechnic, Ikot Osurua, Abel Udo Jacob and one Innocent Nicholas Ntokon have been convicted by the State High Court for offences bothering on terrorism, extortion and cultism.
The lecturer, Abel, would be confined in prison for three years while his counterpart, Innocent would serve for eight years.
Delivering his judgement on Wednesday, the trial judge, Hon. Justice Augustine Odokwo, found Ntokon and Jacob guilty of subjecting a local businessman, Edikan Jacob Jackson, to a “merciless extortion scheme” that resulted in the loss of over N50,000,000 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 terrorize the victim.
The court heard 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 while the lecturer acted as the “financial clearinghouse” for the syndicate.
The court rejected his defense 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 terrorized for four years and lost his father partly due to a lack of funds caused by this very extortion,” emphasizing 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 and convicted him fo 8 years confinement (to run concurrently).
Abel Udo Jacob was convicted on counts of Demanding with Menace, Stealing, and Terrorism and was handed down a maximum sentence of 3 years confinement (to run concurrently).
Also, the court ordered the convicts to jointly and severally pay N25,000,000 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.
Akwa Poly lecturer, accomplice jailed over extortion, cultism
