A 24-year-old seafarer, Aladekomo Ayodele Samuel and four others have been convicted for offences bordering on internet fraud by Kwara State High Court sitting in Ilorin, the state capital.
The other convicts are 24-year-old Mustapha Bashir, an electrician, Sulyman Mustapha, a barber, Adedayo Samuel, who also claims to be a barber and Adeoye Olalekan, who claims to be a student.
The convicts were prosecuted on separate charges by the Ilorin Zonal Command of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) before Justice Mahmud Abdulgafar, except Sulyman Mustapha whose trial came up before Justice Adebayo Yusuf of the Kwara State High Court, Ilorin.
The charge against Aladekomo reads: “That you, Aladekomo Ayodele Samuel, sometime between January 2023 and May 2023, in Ilorin within the jurisdiction of this Honorable Court, did cheat by personation when you pretended to be one Kristina Lauren, a female resident of the United States of America with Gmail account [email protected] and Facebook account Kristina Lauren and in that guise induced one Steve Gamble, a male resident of the United States of America to send you gift cards worth the sum of $700 and thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 321 of the Penal Code Law and Punishable under Section 324 of the Penal Code Law”
Details of the charge against Mustapha read: “That you, Mustapha Bashir, sometime in March, 2020 at Ilorin, within the judicial division of the High Court, did attempt to cheat by personation when you pretended to be one Shanny Hollywood; vide Google mail account: [email protected] and in that guise communicated with one Jeral Henderson inducing him to part with property, and thereby committed an offence contrary to section 95 read along with Section 321 of the Penal Code Law and Punishable under Section 324 of the same Penal Code.”
On the other hand, count 3 against Adeoye reads: ” That you, Adeoye Quadri Olalekan, sometime between August 2022 and May 2023 at Ilorin, within the judicial division of the High Court, did knowingly had under your control, the gross of N1,634,293 deposited in your Guaranty Trust Bank account No. 0715088800, which is reasonably suspected to have been unlawfully obtained and thereby committed an offence contrary to and punishable under Section 319 (a) of the Penal Code.”
When arraigned, the defendants pleaded guilty to their respective charge.
Consequently, the counsel that represented the EFCC in the cases – Andrew Akoja, Muinat Bello and Isabel Adeniran in separate prayers before the courts urged the judges to take judicial notice of the ‘guilty plea’ by the defendants as well as the uncontroverted evidence adduced before the court to convict them as charged.
The justices said that they were convinced that the prosecution had established the essential ingredients of the crime against the defendants to warrant their conviction, and thus pronounced them guilty.
Consequently, Justice Abdulgafar sentenced Aladekomo to six months suspended imprisonment on count 1 and 2 and ordered the forfeiture of the convict’s iphone 11 promax, iphone 6s and the sum of $400.
Mustapha was also sentenced to six months suspended imprisonment at the Nigerian Correctional Centre and the judge ordered that one Infinix hot phone which he used to commit the crime be forfeited to the federal government.
In the same vein, Justice Abdulgafar sentenced Adedayo to six months imprisonment at Mandala Correctional Centre with an option of N100, 000 and ordered that one iphone 11 which the convict used to perpetrate the crime and the sum of N810, 006.92 in his bank account be forfeited to the federal government.
Equally, the judge sentenced Adeoye to six months suspended imprisonment on count 1 and 2 with option of N150,000 on each count, while he was sentenced to three months imprisonment on count 3 with option of N50,000.
The court also ordered that one iphone 14, iphone 6, MacBook and the sum of $300 recovered from the convict’s account be forfeited to the Federal Government.
On the other hand, Justice Yusuf sentenced Sulyman to six months imprisonment with option of fine of N50, 000.
The court also ordered that one iphone XR which he used to perpetrate the crime be forfeited to the federal government.
