Orders N25M Restitution, Forfeiture of Vehicles in Landmark Judgement
The High Court of Akwa Ibom State, Ikot Ekpene Judicial Division, has convicted and sentenced an alleged cult leader and a lecturer of Akwa Ibom State Polytechnic, Ikot Osurua to prison for orchestrating a four-year campaign of terror and multi-million Naira extortion against a businessman.
Delivering judgment, Hon. Justice Augustine Odokwo found Innocent Nicholas Ntokon and Abel Udo Jacob guilty of subjecting a businessman, Edikan Jacob Jackson to what the court described as a “merciless extortion scheme” that drained over ₦50 million and nearly destroyed his family business.
The court held that, between 2016 and 2020, Ntokon, identified as a leader of the Ku Klux Klans Confraternity, deployed intimidation, armed threats and psychological terror to compel their victim remit regular payments.
Evidence before the court revealed that armed enforcers were usually sent to the victim’s shops, while threats were also issued against his mother and sisters to sustain the illegal payments.
Abel Udo Jacob, a postgraduate degree holder in Engineering and lecturer at Akwa Ibom State Polytechnic, Ikot Osurua in Ikot Ekpene Local Government Area of the State was found to have acted as the “financial clearinghouse” for the syndicate by channeling funds through his bank account.
Justice Odokwo dismissed Jacob’s claim that the funds were proceeds from “NDDC roofing contracts,” describing the defence as “totally not in accord with common sense.”
In an emotionally charged moment at the end of the two-hour judgment, the convicts pleaded for leniency.
However, the court emphasized the severe psychological trauma inflicted on the victim, noting that the businessman was terrorized for four years and reportedly lost his father partly due to financial strain caused by the extortion.
The judge described Ntokon as “a predator who used the cloak of a trader to hide the heart of a hardened and merciless cultist and extortionist.”
Ntokon was convicted on counts of Demanding with Menace, Stealing, Terrorism and Cultism, and sentenced to a maximum of eight years imprisonment, with the terms to run concurrently.
Jacob was convicted on counts of Demanding with Menace, Stealing and Terrorism, and sentenced to a maximum of three years imprisonment, also to run concurrently.
To ensure that “crime does not pay,” the court ordered the convicts to jointly and severally pay ₦25 million in restitution to the victim.
Additionally, a Toyota Avensis and a Mercedes Benz identified as proceeds of the crime were ordered forfeited to the state, and to be auctioned, with proceeds applied toward partial restitution.
The judgment sends a strong warning against the use of cult affiliations and professional positions as cover for criminal enterprise in the state.
