Two persons, Arewa Adekunle and Kadiri Yusuf Kayode, were on Tuesday, April 16, sentenced to prison for internet fraud.
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission(EFCC), Ibadan zonal office had filed charges against the accused persons at the Federal High Court, Ibadan.
Justices Joyce Abdulmalik and Patience Ajoku sentenced the duo to six and four months imprisonment respectively.
The convicts had pleaded guilty to the separate one-count amended charges preferred against them by the EFCC which were products of the plea bargain proposed by their lawyers and agreed to by the commission.
The charges were based on fraud and fraudulent impersonation.
Arewa, an National Diploma(ND) holder, was charged with fraudulent impersonation by presenting himself to be Barrister Tania Rivera, with email address barristertanviarivera@gmail.com, thereby committing an offense contrary to Section 22(2) and punishable under Section 22(2)(b)(iv) of the cyber crimes (Prohibition, Prevention Etc.) Act 2015.
On his own part, Kadiri, who is a graduate of Banking and Finance from the University of Ado Ekiti, was said to have fraudulently impersonated one Justina Lizzy ‘sometimes in 2018, at Elebu, within the jurisdiction of the honourable court.
The convict had used his email, justinalizzy@gmail.com to send messages to one Shahzad lqbal ‘in order to confer financial gains’ to himself, thereby committing an offence contrary to Section 22 (3) (b) and punishable under Section 22(4) of the Cyber Crimes (Prohibition, Prevention Etc.) Act 2015.
The EFCC’s counsel in the respective cases, Abdulrasheed Suleiman and Oyelakin Oyediran, urged the courts to accept the plea bargain agreement and convict the duo accordingly.
Asides bagging a jail term, Arewa was said to have already refunded the sum of $200 USD as restitution to the victim of his fraud. He will also forfeit his HP Laptop and IPhone 6s to the federal government.
Also, in addition to his sentencing, Alao will refund the sum of $200 to his victim. The presiding judge also ordered that he forfeits his HP Laptop, two Tecno J8 mo
