20-year-old Univeristy Students Have Been Sentenced To Prison For Cybercrime And Internet Fraud In Ilorin

Two university students were jailed on Friday by a State High Court sitting in Ilorin, Kwara state for offences bordering on cybercrime and romance scam. The convicts are Adeyemi Kehinde, a final year students of Ekiti State University, Ado Ekiti and Oladosun Olakunmi. There were convicted to various jail terms.

They were arraigned on separate charges on Friday by the Ilorin Zonal office of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). One of the suspects Adeyemi Kehinde, popularly known as Queen Elizabeth, was charged on one count, while Oladosun Olakunmi was arraigned on three counts by the anti-graft agency before Justice Sikiru Oyinloye.

The two defendants in their separate pleas, pleaded guilty to the charges against them. Upon their pleas, the prosecuting counsel, Barr. Sesan Ola, reviewed the facts of the cases through Lamidi Olarenwaju and Enoch Onyedikachi, who testified against the two convicts.

The two witnesses, who are operatives of the commission, told the court how intelligence reports led to the arrest of the convicts at the Ilorin International Airport. They tendered before the honorable court several fraudulent messages printed from their email addresses.

They also tender before the honorable court confessional statements of the defendants and the iPhones used as instruments of the crime, which the suspects admitted in evidence by the court.

In his judgment, Justice Sikiru Oyinloye, said the court was convinced that the prosecution had proved its case beyond reasonable doubt, going by the plea of guilt entered by the defendants, and the unchallenged evidence of the prosecution.

The judge, thereafter, pronounced Adeyemi Kehinde guilty and sentenced him to one year imprisonment with an option of N100,000 fine while ordering the forfeiture of his iPhone worth over N900,000 to the Federal government of Nigeria.

In the case of Oladosun Olakunmi, he was sentenced to one year imprisonment on counts one and two, which will run concurrently or a fine of N100,000 each on the two counts. On count three, Justice Sikiru Oyinloye only ordered Oladosun Olakunmi to pay a fine of N20,000 with no custodial sentence.

Additionally, the court also ordered the forfeiture of a N209,000 draft raised in Oladosun Olakunmi name and his iPhone worth over N900,000 to the Federal government.

The charge sheet of Adeyemi Kehinde, indicated that in February 2020, while in Ilorin, he dishonestly defraud one Miller, a white man to send him card worth $400 US dollars, while he pretended to be a white lady called Queen Elizabeth Toha, who was in love with him, a representation which was later discovered to be false as contained in his Google voice and Google Hangout linked to his Gmail account, queentoha18@gmail.com, and thereby committed an offence contrary to and punishable under Section 324 of the Penal code of Northern Nigeria.

On the other hand, the charge sheet of Oladosun Olamilekan, revealed that in March 2018, while in Ilorin, he committed the crime of impersonation when he pretended to be one Mike Storey, a white man with Gmail account mikestorey948@gmail.com and fraudulently deceived one Vicki Baldwin to send him $300 US dollars worth of iTunes gift card and thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 321 of the Penal code and punishable under Section 324 of the same Penal code.

The two students will be sentenced to one year in prison unless they pay a fine of N100,000 each.

Also a Kwara state high court, sitting in Ilorin, the Kwara state capital has sentenced a 20-year-old boy name Oke Gideon to one month in prison. He was found guilty of offences bordering on romance scam and internet fraud by Justice Mahmood Abdulgafar.

A statement by the media unit of the Ilorin Zonal office of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) said the law caught up with Oke Gideon on 4th May 2021, when he was arrested by operatives of the agency following Intelligence reports on his nefarious activities.

Upon arrest, he was profiled and volunteered a statement, admitting that he actually committed the crime. In his confessional statement, dated on 6th May 2021, Oke Gideon admitted that he engaged in dating scam, live scam and other internet fraud-related offences.

He was subsequently arraigned in court on Friday, 2nd July 2021 on two counts charges to which he pleaded guilty. In his judgment, Justice Mahmood Abdulgafar, convicted and sentenced Oke Gideon to one month in prison based on his confessional statement, his plea to the charge and exhibits tendered against him before the court.

Following his plea, Counsel to the EFCC, Barr. Sesan Ola, led one Sarah Audu, an operative of the agency, to review the facts of the case. Sarah Audu narrated how Oke Gideon was arrested based on actionable intelligence on the activities of internet fraudsters operating within Ilorin metropolis.

She further tendered the confessional statement of the convict as well as fraudulent messages printed from his email which were all admitted in evidence. However, the judge gave the convict an option of a fine of N50,000 and ordered that his iPhone 6 and HP laptop which was used as instruments in the crime be forfeited to the Federal government of Nigeria.

Count one of the charge read; “That you Oke Gideon, with a fake name Jenna Cherry, between August 2020 and September 2020, in Ilorin within the jurisdiction of this honourable court, with intent to defraud, did obtain $150 US dollars, with a gift from one Bradley Miller under the false pretence that you are Jenna Cherry, a white lady from Las Vegas, United States of America, which you knew to be false and thereby committed an offence punishable under Section 1(3) of Advance Fee Fraud and other fraud-related offences Act 2006.

Oke Gideon will be sentenced to one month in prison unless he pay a fine of N50,000.