Court jails student, 3 others for internet fraud

The Kwara State High Court sitting in Ilorin, the state capital, has sentenced a student, Akanbi Akorede Afeez, to two years imprisonment for internet fraud.

Afeez was arraigned on a one-count charge bordering on internet fraud on Monday, December 9, 2024.

The charge read: “That you, Akanbi Akorede Afeez (a.k.a Erdis) between February 2023 or thereabout 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 Five Hundred and Fifty One 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 punishable under section 324 of the Penal Code Laws of Northern Nigeria.”

The presiding judge, Justice Suleiman Akanbi, thereafter, ordered the student to sweep and clear the premises of the Kwara State High Court for two weeks, while forfeiting his iPhone 14 Promax and his HP laptop which were used to perpetrate the crime to the federal government.

The Ilorin Zonal Directorate of the EFCC also secured the conviction of another three suspected fraudsters before Justice Haleema Saleeman of the State High Court in Ilorin over offences bordering on internet fraud.

They are 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 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.”

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Upon their pleas, the EFCC counsel, Rasheedat Alao and Victoria Igbodo, 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 benefited 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 EFCC.

The judge also 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.

Justice Saleeman also sentenced Oluwatimileyin 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 forfeited to the federal government.

The Star