The High Court of Akwa Ibom State sitting in Ikot Ekpene has sentenced cultist Innocent Ntokon and Akwa Ibom State Polytechnic lecturer Abel Udo Jacob to prison terms for their roles in extorting over ₦50,000,000 from a local businessman.
Justice Augustine Odokwo on Wednesday found the accused guilty of subjecting Edikan Jacob Jackson to a “merciless extortion scheme” that nearly collapsed his family business. Between 2016 and 2020, Ntokon, a leader in Klans Konfraternity, allegedly terrorised the victim by sending armed enforcers to his shops and issuing death threats against his mother and sisters to compel monthly payments.
The court heard that Jacob acted as the “financial clearinghouse” for the syndicate. His defence that the funds were for NDDC roofing contracts was rejected as “totally not in accord with common sense.”
At the two-hour judgment, the court emphasised the psychological trauma inflicted on the victims, noting that the extortion contributed to the death of the victim’s father. Justice Odokwo 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 sentenced to eight years on charges of demanding with menace, stealing, terrorism, and cultism, while Jacob received a maximum of three years for demanding with menace, stealing, and terrorism. The sentences will run concurrently.
The court ordered the convicts to jointly and severally pay ₦25,000,000 in restitution and forfeited a Toyota Avensis and a Mercedes Benz, proceeds of the crime, to the state for auction to partially compensate the victim.
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