The Ilorin Zonal Directorate of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has secured the conviction of 11 persons for offences bordering on internet fraud and cybercrime.
Among the convicts is a 20-year-old electrician, Mathew Yaba, who was sentenced to nine months imprisonment without option of fine on offences bordering on personation and retention of proceeds of unlawful activities.
Justice Abimbola Awogboro of the Federal High Court sitting in Ilorin found Yaba guilty of retaining control of the gross sum of N7,384,750.00 and also impersonating one Raleigh Jredd.
The offence is contrary and punishable under Section 17 of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (Establishment) Act, 2004.
Other convicts include Samuel Stephen Ayomide, Bamidele Olajide, Isah Kadir, Abdulrasaq Jubril, Samuel Juwon, Omolaiye Stephen, Kayode Opeyemi, Abdulrahim Lasisi , Ugwuadu Michael and Moshood Abduljawad.
All defendants, except Jubril who was tried before Justice Mahmud Abdulgafar of the Kwara State High Court, were prosecuted before Justice Awogboro.
In one of the counts, Yaba was accused of retaining the control of the gross sum of N7,384,750.00 through his Kuda Bank account number 2046437307 sometime between the year 2022 and 2025.
The EFCC said he knew sum to be proceed of criminal conduct and thereby committed an offence contrary to and punishable under Section 17 (a) and (b) of the EFCC (Establishment) Act 2004.
Ayomide was accused of sending electronic messages on his Telegram Account; CPN Goat sometimes in 2025, with intent to defraud, where the convict materially misrepresented facts that he specialised in creating credit bureaus scores on Credit privacy Number (CPN) under which reliance, one faith Jackson was caused to suffer loss of $922 through Bitcoin.
He was thereby committed computer-related fraud contrary to, and punishable under Section 14 (2) of the cybercrime (prohibition prevention Etc) Act 2015.
When the charges were read to them, they all pleaded guilty to their respective charges.
Aliyu Adebayo, Andrew Akoja and Omolade Ajibola who prosecuted the cases on behalf of the Commission reviewed the facts of the cases through witnesses who are operatives of the EFCC.
They tendered the extra-judicial statements of the defendants, items recovered from them at the point of arrests and various amount of money brought as restitution, which were all admitted in evidence.
The Justices in their separate judgments upheld the cases of the prosecution and pronounced the defendants guilty based on the admittance of guilt and the uncontroverted evidences placed before the courts.
Consequently, Justice Awogboro sentenced Yaba to nine months imprisonment without option of fine and ordered the final forfeiture of the convict’s iphone 13, and the sum of N200,000 , which he restituted to the federal government.
For his part, Ayomide got nine months imprisonment without an option of fine.
He would also forfeit the sum $535, part of what he benefited from his criminal activities and one iPhone 16 to the federal government.
Similarly, the judge slammed a jail term of six months imprisonment without option of fine on Olajide and ordered the forfeiture of his iPhone X, Samsung A05 that was used as instrumentality of the crime and the sum of $50 he benefited from the crime to the federal government.
For Kadiri, the court sentenced him to 300 hours of community service at five hours per day with a forfeiture order of his Infinix Hot10 light recovered from him to the Federal Government.
Furthermore, Justice Awogboro sentenced Juwon to 12 months imprisonment without option of fine, commencing from the date of his arrest and ordered the final forfeiture of his iPhone 6, iPhone XR, iPhone 13, HP laptop.
Benefit was handed a jail term of nine months imprisonment, also without an option of fine and would forfeit his phones and the sum of N1million, which he restituted to the Federal Government.
Opeyemi was sentenced to six months imprisonment without option of fine and would also forfeit his phone and the sum of N500,000 to the Federal Government.
Lasisi, like Kadiri, was sentenced to community service of 150 hours at five hours per day and would also forfeit his Samsung S9 to the Federal Government.
Michael and Abduljawad were sentenced to 12 and 6 months imprisonment, respectively without option of fine.
However, the sum of N500,000 and $190 restituted by Michael and Abduljawad, respectively including the phones that they used as instrumentality of the crime were forfeited to the federal government.
In his own judgment, Justice Abdulgafar sentenced Jubril to six months suspended sentence and ordered the final forfeiture of his iPhone 12 and the sum of $180 that he brought as restitution.
Additionally, he was ordered to pay the balance of $110, part of what he benefited from the crime.
