A lecturer at Akwa Ibom State Polytechnic, Abel Udo Jacob, and his accomplice, Innocent Nicholas Ntokon, have been handed a combined 11-year jail term by the Akwa Ibom State High Court sitting in Ikot Ekpene for their involvement in a N50m extortion scheme.

Delivering judgment on Wednesday, Justice Augustine Odokwo convicted the duo for subjecting a businessman, Edikan Jacob Jackson, to years of threats, intimidation and financial exploitation that resulted in losses exceeding N50m.

The court found that between 2016 and 2020, Ntokon, described as a leader of the Klans Confraternity, orchestrated a sustained campaign of terror against the victim, allegedly sending armed enforcers to his shops and issuing threats against his family members to compel monthly payments.

Jacob, the polytechnic lecturer, was found to have facilitated the scheme by serving as the “financial clearinghouse” for the syndicate, allowing extorted funds to pass through his bank account.

The judge dismissed the lecturer’s defence that he believed the money was linked to “NDDC roofing contracts,” describing the explanation as unreasonable and inconsistent with the evidence before the court.

In a strongly worded judgment that lasted about two hours, 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’ imprisonment on counts of demanding with menace, stealing, terrorism and cultism, while Jacob received three years for demanding with menace, stealing and terrorism. The sentences are to run concurrently, bringing the total jail term to 11 years.

The court also ordered the convicts to jointly and severally pay N25m in restitution to the victim, stressing that crime must not pay.

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 the proceeds to serve as partial restitution to the complainant. (Punch)