Nigerian music star, Chinedu Okoli, widely known as Flavour N’abania, has expressed his thoughts on the recent sentencing of a man who impersonated him. Courage Ikpaka was sentenced to two years in prison by the Federal High Court in Lagos for posing as Flavour and scamming an American woman, Yvelte M. Thompson, out of $53,000.

The case was brought to court by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and was heard by Justice Dehinde Dipeolu on September 3. During the trial, EFCC investigator Azibagiri Dan Ekpar testified that Ikpaka had promised to organize music shows in the United States while pretending to be Flavour. He managed to receive payments from Thompson through his Bitcoin wallet.

The fraud was uncovered after Eyitayo Tolulope Abiodun and others filed a petition on behalf of the victim. Ikpaka pleaded guilty to the charges, and the court, after considering the evidence, sentenced him to two years in prison. However, the judge gave Ikpaka the option to pay a fine of N2 million instead of serving the full sentence. Additionally, the court ordered that N7.9 million recovered from Ikpaka be returned to the victim, Mrs. Thompson.

Flavour took to his X (formerly Twitter) handle to react to the news. He shared a photo of the impersonator along with the caption, “One down. Ndi uchu!” showing his relief that one of the individuals tarnishing his name has been brought to justice.