Justice Abimbola Awogboro of the Federal High Court sitting in Ilorin, Kwara State has sentenced a 27-year-old fashion designer, Haruna Tolani to 12 months imprisonment.
Tolani was sentenced for impersonating and defrauding Callitus Egwuonwu, an investigating officer with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Ilorin Zonal Directorate.
The convicted tailor was initially arraigned on a two-count charge bordering on impersonation and cybercrime on January 28, 2025 and pleaded not guilty, but later changed his plea to guilty after overwhelming evidence was presented by counsel to the EFCC, Sesan Ola.
Count one of the charge reads: “That you Haruna Musa Tolani in August, 2024 at Ilorin within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court with intent to defraud, misrepresented yourself via electronic message sent through unstructured supplementary service data (USSD) to Access Bank Plc.
“With respect to account number 0022643389, property of Mr Callistus Egwuonwu, with which you purchased N20,000 worth of MTN data which resulted into loss to the owner of the account and you thereby commit an offence contrary to and punishable under Section 14(2) of the cybercrime (Prohibition and Prevention) Act, 2015”
Similarly, count two reads: “That you Haruna Musa Tolani sometime in August, 2024 at Ilorin within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court fraudulently impersonated one Callistus Egwuonwu via electronic message sent through unstructured supplementary service data (USSD) to Access Bank Plc with respect to account number 0022643389, property of Callistus Egwuonwu with intention to purchase MTN data worth 20,000.00 which you did purchase and thereby committed offence contrary to Section 22(2)(b)(ii) of the cybercrime (Prohibition and Prevention) Act,2015 and punishable under Section 22(2)(b)(iv) of the same Act.”
In his judgment, Justice Awogboro imposed a 12-month custodial sentence on Tolani with an option of a fine of N200,000 .
The court also ordered the forfeiture of a First Bank manager’s cheque of N200,000 in favour of the victim and directed the convict to restitute the sum of N20,000, the amount he fraudulently obtained.
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