Justice Mojisola Dada of the Lagos State Special Offences Court in Ikeja, has sentenced a businessman, Hilary Ogbobe to ten years imprisonment for obtaining N13 million naira under false pretence from his friend.
Justice Dada convicted Ogbobe and his company, Marine Mayor Limited After she found them guilty of three counts charge of conspiracy to obtain and obtaining money by false pretence and misdemeanor brought against them by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC)
The judge, however, discharged and acquitted the convict’s wife, Dorothy Ijeomo of the third count charge which borders on misdemeanor.
The EFCC had maintained that the offences are contrary to sections 8(a) and 1(3) of the Advance Fee Fraud and Other Related Offences Act No 14 of 2006.
They had pleaded not guilty to the charge when they were arraigned on March 15, 2019 by the EFCC.
The trial commenced and the prosecution called two witnesses who testified against the defendants.
The prosecution witness, (PW1)’ Ezugwu Aniebonan in his evidence narrated to court how Ogbobe fraudulently obtained the money from him through Marine Mayor Limited’s Zenith Bank account.
Aniebonan told the judge that, “he called me and told me there is a Dreger for sale by Lagos State Government and UBA that he wants to buy and scrap, that I should help him to raise N12 million, that he would raise N8 million.’’
In her judgment, Justice Dada found Ogbobe guilty and she sentenced him to seven years imprisonment on count one.
