Justice Sikiru Oyinloye of the Kwara State High Court in Ilorin has sentenced a 33-year-old herder based in Tanzania, Tunde Olagunju and two others to various jail terms for offences on love scam and cybercrime.
The two other convicts are Hassan Gafar Olarewaju, 29, and an Ilorin based bricklayer, Ojo Basit Adewale.
The Ilorin Zonal Command of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, on Monday, September 20, arraigned the trio on separate charges, to which they pleaded guilty.
Following the guilty plea by the defendants, Mr Aliyu Adebayo, the prosecuting EFCC lawyer in the case against Tunde, urged the court to convict and sentence the defendant based on his admittance of guilt and the evidence before it.
In the same vein, Mr Andrew Akoja, who represented the Commission in the case against Hassan and Ojo, asked the court to take judicial notice of the guilty plea entered by the defendants as well as the evidence tendered against them in sentencing them.
In his judgment on the cases on Monday, Justice Oyinloye said that he had carefully considered the facts and circumstances of the matter, most especially the charges, guilty plea entered by the defendants, evidence tendered without objection and the confessional statements of the defendants.
The judge also held that the defence had failed to disprove the allegations brought against the defendants. The judge consequently found the defendants guilty of the offences.
Justice Oyinloye thereafter sentenced Tunde to two years imprisonment with option of fine of N650,000 and ordered that the sum of $1,500 which he benefited from the crime as well as the iPhone used to perpetrate the crime be forfeited to the Federal Government.
Similarly, Justice Oyinloye sentenced Ojo to one year imprisonment on count one with option of fine of N250, 000 and one year on count two with option of fine of N250, 000.
According to the judge, the custodial sentences would run concurrently, “but if the convict prefers the option of fine, he shall pay the fine on both counts”.
The court also ordered the forfeiture of Ojo’s Silver-coloured Toyota Camry Car 2009 Model marked LSR 431 GV, which he acquired with the proceed of unlawful activities, Gold IPhone 12 pro and $200 which he benefited from the crime, to the federal government.
In a similar fashion, Hassan was sentenced to one-year imprisonment with option of fine of N300, 000. The convict would in addition, forfeit the IPhone XR recovered from him at the point of arrest to the Federal Government.
