Six Internet Fraudsters Bag Jail Terms in Lagos
By JUMOKE SANNI
The Lagos Zonal Office of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, has secured the conviction of six internet fraudsters before Justice Oluwatoyin Taiwo of the Special Offences Court, Ikeja, Lagos.
The convicts: Oshunmuyiwa Kehinde Damilare; Rilwan Abiodun Ogunleye; Tanimowo Ismail Olusegun; Akorede Arimiyau Idowu, Daniel Elijah, Lamina Hamzat Ajibola were prosecuted separately on varrying charges of fraudulent activities, to which they all pleaded guilty.
The charge against Damilare read: “That you, Oshunmuyiwa Kehinde Damilare, on or about the 6th day of January 2019, at Lagos within the Ikeja Judicial Division of the honourable court, with intent to defraud, had in your possession an email correspondence, being email chat between your email address [email protected], and which email you knew contained false information and committed an offence contrary to Section 318 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, No. 11 of 2011.”
The charge against Ogunleye read: “That you, Rilwan Abiodun Ogunleye, on or about the 1st of September, 2019 in Lagos, within the Ikeja Judicial Division of this honourable court, with intent to defraud, had in your possession email correspondence, being email chat between your email address [email protected], which email you know contained false representations and thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 318 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, No. 11, 2011.”
Following their pleas of guilt, prosecution counsel, Anita Imo, urged the court to convict the duo as charged.
Justice Taiwo convicted both defendants and sentenced them to six months imprisonment with N200,000.00 (Two Hundred Thousand Naira) option of fine, respectively. Aside the prison terms, they also forfeited their mobile phones to the Federal Government.
Olusegun was prosecuted on a two-count charge, bordering on possession of documents, containing false pretence.
One of the charges read: “That you, Tanimowo Ismail Olusegun, on or about the 16th of June, 2020 in Lagos within the jurisdiction of this honourable court, with intent to defraud, had in your possession a document titled “Louisiana Identification Card,” wherein you falsely represented yourself to be one Myers Paula Co00lleen to an unsuspecting victim, one Moyosore Abiola, that you were an agent of the United Nations with the support of the World Bank to help America, Australia and Europe in a poverty eradication scheme which pretence you knew or ought to have known to be false and committed an offence contrary to Section 318 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2011.”
In view of his plea of guilt, prosecution counsel, Ayanfe Ogunsina urged the court to convict , sentence him and order the forfeiture of the items recovered from him to the federal government.
Justice Taiwo found him guilty and sentenced him to six months imprisonment with N250,000.00( Two Hundred and Fifty Thousand Naira) option of fine. The convict additionally forfeited his Lexus Salon car and mobile devices recovered from him to the Federal government.
Similarly, the judge convicted and sentenced Idowu to six months imprisonment. He was prosecuted on one-count charge of possession of fraudulent documents.
The charge read: “That you, Akorede Arimiyau Idowu, on or about the 16th day of June, 2020 in Lagos, within the jurisdiction of this honourable court, with intent to defraud, had in your possession a document, titled “Yahoo”, which representations you knew or ought to have known was false and thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 318 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2011.”
Upon his plea of guilt, prosecution counsel, S. O. Daji reviewed the facts of the case and urged the court to convict and sentence the defendant as charged.
Justice Taiwo found him guilty of the offence and sentenced him to six months imprisonment with N200, 000.00 (Two Hundred Thousand Naira) option of fine. He also ordered the forfeiture of his mobile devices to the federal government.
Ajibola also earned a six months imprisonment from Justice Taiwo, following one-count charge of possession of fraudulent document.
The charge read: “That you, Lamina Hamzat Ajibola, on or about the 11th day of June, 2020 in Lagos, within the Ikeja Judicial Division of this honourable court, with intent to defraud, had in your possession a document containing false pretence titled “Fwd,” which you used for “Dating scam,” wherein you represented yourself as Lisa Lopez, which representations you knew to be false and committed an offence contrary to Section 318 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2011.”
Following his guilty plea, prosecution counsel, Godsent Akhanolu, reviewed the facts of the case and urged the court to convict and sentence him accordingly.
Justice Taiwo found him guilty and sentenced him to six months imprisonment or N200,000.00 (Two Hundred Thousand Naira) option of fine. He also ordered the forfeiture of his mobile devices to the Federal government.
Elijah also bagged six months imprisonment from Justice Taiwo following his prosecution on two-count charges, bordering on possession of fraudulent documents.
One of the charges read: “That you, Daniel Elijah, on or about the 12th day of June, 2020 in Lagos, within the Ikeja Judicial Division of this honourable court, had in your possession a “Univest Bank and Trust Co.Check” valued at $10,545. 15 with serial No. 000065066 dated 25th January, 2017, purported to have emanated from Angelique Shine and sent to unsuspecting members of the public, which document you knew to have contained false pretence and committed an offence contrary to Section 318, Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2011.”
Upon his plea of guilt, prosecution counsel, Ahmed Yerima, reviewed the facts of the case and urged the court to convict and sentence him and order the forfeiture of his Volkswagen car and mobile devices to the federal government.
Justice Taiwo found him guilty of the offences and sentenced him to six months imprisonment with N250,000.00 (Two Hundred and Fifty Thousand Naira) option of a fine. Additionally, he ordered the forfeiture of his car and mobile devices to the Federal government.
