MAN BAGS ONE-YEAR JAIL TERM, 100 HOURS COMMUNITY SERVICE FOR FRAUD

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A Special Offences Court in Ikeja has sentenced a man, Ayomide Ojo, to one-year imprisonment with an option of 100-hour community service for fraudulently representing himself as a woman online and defrauding people by soliciting sex.

Justice Olubunmi Abike-Fadipe, on Thursday, sentenced the defendant, Ojo, after he pleaded guilty to a count charge of being in possession of a fraudulent document containing false pretence.

The offence is contrary to Section 320 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2015.

The prosecution and counsel to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Fanen Anun, told the court that the defendant had, sometime in September 2023, falsely represented himself as a woman online and engaged in a dating scam.

Anun told the court that the defendant benefited $500 from his victims.

The prosecution counsel told the court that operatives of the EFCC received credible intelligence of a group engaged in cybercrime who were living lavishly without any means of earning a living.

Anun informed the court that the EFCC operatives arrested the defendant, alongside others who are being tried in other courts after they carried out a raid on their residence in Ikorodu.

Anun said, “We arrested the defendant who said he was new in the ‘yahoo-yahoo’ business.”

Anun said the EFCC retrieved a Samsung Galaxy S9 from Ojo and discovered he had two email addresses that he used to represent himself as a woman and defraud the public.

The prosecution said the EFCC found fraudulent documents in the email addresses which they printed out.

The counsel to the EFCC told the court that the defendant confessed to his offence in a statement he made in custody and also made an application for a plea bargain.

Anun presented the Judge with the confessional statement of the defendant, the bundle of documents printed from the fraudulent Gmail accounts and the Samsung Galaxy S9 and asked that they be entered into evidence, which the judge did.

The defence counsel, T. E. Beabo, did not object to the application of the prosecution counsel to tender the materials in evidence.

Anun prayed to the judge, Abike-Fadipe, to convict the defendant and order that he forfeit the Samsung Galaxy S9 that was recovered from him to the Federal Government.

The judge, Abike-Fadipe, questioned Oladunni on his offence and after she was satisfied that he understood the guilty plea he took, convicted him of possessing documents containing false pretence, contrary to Section 320 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State.

When the judge asked the convict what he had to say after his conviction, he pleaded with the court for forgiveness.

The convict, Ojo, said, “I know I have offended (sic). And I will not go back. I am just pleading for forgiveness.”

Abike-Fadipe sentenced the convict to one year in prison with an option of 100 hours of community service.

She said, “Should the convict choose community service, the correctional services shall report his progress to the court.”

“On any day he misses the hour of community service, he shall serve out the remainder of the time in a custodial centre,” she added.

The judge said the convict would also forfeit his Samsung Galaxy S9 which he used to commit the crime to the Federal Government of Nigeria.