Six persons have been be convicted for financial crimes and internet fraud after been brought before the court by the Ilorin Zonal Directorate of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission. The conicts were brought before the Justices Sulaiman Akanbi and Adebayo Yusuf of the Kwara State High Court sitting in Ilorin.
The conviction was announced in a statement by the Head of Media and Publicity of EFCC, Dele Oyewale, made available to journalists on Thursday. The statement disclosed the identities of the convicts as Idris Muhammed, Ismail Mustapha, Oyekola Odunayo, Anthony Stephen, Timilehin Adeniyi and Olayiwola Ayomide Abdulmalik.
In the judgment, Justice Akanbi sent Muhammed, Mustapha, Odunayo and Stephen to the correctional centre, while Justice Yusuf convicted the duo of Adeniyi and Abdulmalik on Monday, October 14, 2024.
It was disclosed that the charges brought before Idris, one of the suspects, was that Idris Muhammed, on or about the 13th day of July 2024 to 13th of August 2024 in Ilorin within the Jurisdiction of this Honourable Court, did cheat by personation when he pretended to be one Dorthy Onanewlevel Palmer and fraudulently deceived one Lavergne Adriana Racheal to send $600 (six hundred dollars) to you via cash app and thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 321 of the Penal Code and punishable under Section 324 of the Penal Code.
While taking their pleas in court, the prosecution counsels, Andrew Akoja and Victoria Igodo, presented extrajudicial statements of the defendants and other items that were recovered from the suspects at the time of the arrest. The prosecutor also presented different amounts that were recovered from the suspects during the arrest. It was noted that the ones were all gotten from illegal activities, which were parts of the evidence shown in court.
After the presentation of the evidence, Justice Akanbi sentenced Idris to two years imprisonment with an option of N100,000 only; the justice also ordered that he forfeit his iPhone 13 and the sum of $300 (three hundred dollars), which he got from the illegal business to the Federal Government.
In another judgement, the court sent Ismail to one-year imprisonment with an option of a fine of N100,000 only while he was equally asked to forfeit his iPhone 11 Promax and $300 to the Federal Government.
Another convict, Odunayo, was sent to one year in prison with an option of N100,000 only on count one, while he was sent to two years in prison for count two with the option of N200,000 fine and two weeks community service on count three with a fine of N50,000.
The EFCC disclosed that the sum of $300 and N34,900 was part of the recovery from the suspect; the judge ruled that the sum be forfeited to the federal government.
The fifth suspect was sent to one-year imprisonment with an option of N50,000 only. He was ordered to leave his iPhone 12 and $25 with the federal government. It was noted that the convict had used illegal means to get all the proceeds.
The last persons, Timilehin and Olayiwola, were sentenced by Justice Yusuf to six months imprisonment with an option of N200,000 each. According to the ruling, all the items, such as phones and the money presented in court by the EFCC, were forfeited to the Federal government.
