COURTS JAIL 11 INTERNET FRAUDSTERS IN KWARA STATE

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, has secured the conviction of eleven fraudsters in Kwara State. The convicts are MATHEW STEPHEN YABA, SAMUEL STEPHEN AYOMIDE, BAMIDELE FAVOUR OLAJIDE, ISAH KADIR, ABDULRASAQ JUBRIL, SAMUEL PETER JUWON, OMOLAIYE STEPHEN BENEFIT, KAYODE EMMANUEL OPEYEMI, ABDULRAHIM LASISI, UGWUADU IKECHUKWU MICHAEL and MOSHOOD ABDULJAWAD. They were arraigned by the EFCC’s Ilorin Zonal Directorate before Justice MAHMUD ABDULGAFAR of the Kwara State High Court and Justice ABIMBOLA AWOGBORO and the Federal High Courts, both sitting in Ilorin. Ten of the convicts were tried before Justice AWOGBORO on charges of impersonation, obtaining under false pretence, retention of proceeds of crime and internet fraud. They all pleaded “guilty” to the charges against them, following which prosecution counsel, ALIYU ADEBAYO, ANDREW AKOJA and OMOLADE AJIBOLA, and Justice AWOGBORO proceeded to sentence YABA and AYOMIDE to nine months imprisonment without option of fine, while OLAJIDE to six months imprisonment without option of fine. Justice AWOGBORO also ordered the forfeiture of three iPhones and one Infinix phone seized from the convicts, as well as the sum of Two Hundred Thousand Naira, Five Hundred and Eighty-Five US Dollars recovered from them to the Federal Government. Furthermore, Justice AWOGBORO sentenced JUWON to twelve months imprisonment without option of fine, and ordered the forfeiture of his iPhone 6, iPhone XR, Iphone 13, HP laptop computer and the sum of Five Hundred United States Dollars to the federal government. Similarly, BENEFIT was handed a nine-month jail term without option of fine, in addition to the forfeited his phones and the sum of One Million Naira to the federal government. The Judge convicted and sentenced OPEYEMI to six months imprisonment without option of fine, in addition to the forfeited of his phone and the sum of Five Hundred Thousand Naira. LASISI was convicted and sentenced to 150 hours of community service, at five hours per day and the forfeited his Samsung S9. The judge convicted and sentenced MICHAEL and ABDULJAWAD to twelve-month and six-month imprisonment, respectively, without option of fine. In addition, they are to forfeit their phones and make restitutions of Five Hundred Thousand Naira and One Hundred and Ninety US Dollars to their victims. On his part, Justice ABDULGAFAR convicted and sentenced JUBRIL to six months suspended sentence and ordered the forfeiture of his iPhone to the federal government. He was also ordered to make restitution of Two Hundred and Ninety US Dollars to his victim.