Justice Mojisola Dada of the Special Offences Court, sitting in Ikeja, Lagos has convicted and sentenced two internet fraudsters, Oguntade Idowu and Oguntimehin Samuel to one year imprisonment each.
The convicts were arraigned by the Lagos Zonal office of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, on Tuesday, June 30, 2020 on different count charges before the court. While Idowu was arraigned on one-count charge bordering on possession of a car reasonably suspected to have been stolen, Samuel was arraigned on two-count charges bordering on possession of fraudulent documents.
The count-charge against Idowu read: “That you, Oguntade Idowu, sometime in 2019 in Lagos, within the jurisdiction of this Honourable court, had in your possession, Mercedes Benz C300, reasonably suspected to have been unlawfully obtained and which you do not give account to the satisfaction of court as to how you came about it and committed an offence contrary to Section 39 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2015.”
He pleaded guilty to the charge preferred against him.
In view of his plea, prosecution counsel, I.A. Mohammed, reviewed the facts of the matter and prayed the court to convict him accordingly.
Delivering her judgment, Justice Dada found him guilty of the offence and sentenced him to one year imprisonment.
The Judge also fined him the sum of N500, 000 in lieu of the jail term and ordered him to forfeit the Mezcedes Benz C300 to the Federal Government.
One of the charges against Oguntimehin read: “That you, Oguntimehin Seyi Samuel, sometime in June 2020, in Lagos within the jurisdiction of this Honourable court, had in your possession document containing false pretence titled “ptrapino6678@gmail.com”, wherein you solicited for money on the internet as a white man by name Paul Trapino purportedly from Italy, which representation you knew to be false and committed an offence contrary to Section 320 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2015.”
He pleaded guilty to the charge.
In view of his plea, prosecution counsel, U.U. Buhari, reviewed the facts of the matter and also urged the court to convict the defendant as charged.
Delivering her judgment, Justice Dada found him guilty of the offence and sentenced him to one year imprisonment with an option of fine of N100,000.
The Judge also ordered the forfeiture of all that was recovered from the convict to the Federal Government of Nigeria.
