Justice Suleiman Akanbi of the Kwara State High Court sitting in Ilorin on Monday sentenced a student, Akanbi Akorede Afeez, to two years imprisonment for internet fraud.
According to a statement by Dele Oyewale, the Head of Media and Publicity of the anti-graft agency, Akanbi was arraigned on a charge bordering on internet fraud.
The charge sheet read: “That you, Akanbi Akorede Afeez (aka Erdis) between February 2023 or thereabout in Kwara State within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court dishonestly induced one Dinero Enviado, a white man, to send you gift cards worth the sum of $551 US dollars when you knowingly pretended and represented yourself to be one Erdis, a white lady who is in a romantic relationship with him and you thereby committed an offence contrary to and punishable under Section 321 and Section 324 of the Penal Code Laws of Northern Nigeria.
Equally, on Monday, December 9, 2024, the Ilorin Zonal Directorate secured the conviction of another set of three suspected fraudsters before Justice Haleema Saleeman of the state high court in Ilorin over offences bordering on internet fraud.
The convicts include Oladejo Ibrahim Abiodun, Yusuf Adewale Gbadeyan and Adeoye David Oluwatimileyin.
The convicts were prosecuted on one-count separate charges to which they pleaded guilty.
The charge sheet against Adeoye read: “That you, Adeoye David Oluwatimileyin, sometime in 2024, in Kwara State within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court did cheat by personation when you pretended to be one Sierra and, in that guise, induced one J. Miguel Montaya to send you $300 to you under the guise of a romantic relationship and punishable under Section 321 of the Penal Code Law and punishable under Section 324 of the same laws.
Upon their pleas, counsel to EFCC, Rasheedat Alao and Victoria Igbodo, while reviewing the facts of the cases, presented witnesses and tendered extra-judicial statements of the defendants.
They also tendered in evidence items recovered from them at the point of arrest and monies, which they benefitted from their criminal conduct.
Satisfied with the facts of the cases, the court found the defendants guilty and consequently sentenced them.
Justice Saleeman sentenced Abiodun to one-year imprisonment or a fine of N400,000 and ordered that his iPhone 13 Pro and the sum of $100 be forfeited to the Federal Government.
According to the judge, Abiodun would also restitute the sum of $400 to his victims through the anti-graft agency.
The judge, in the same vein, sentenced Gbadeyan to six months imprisonment or a fine of N300,000. She also ordered the forfeiture of the sum of 300 Canadian dollars, one iPhone 12 and a Samsung phone used as instruments of crime by the convict to the Federal Government.
In the case of Olawatimileyin, Justice Saleeman also sentenced him to eight months imprisonment or a fine of N250,000 and ordered the forfeiture of the sum of $300 and one iPhone 12 recovered from the convict at the point of arrest to the Federal Government.
The trial judge ordered Afeez to sweep and clear the premises of the Kwara State High Court, Ilorin, for two weeks while forfeiting his iPhone 14 Promax and his HP laptop, which were used to perpetrate the crime, to the federal government.
