19th June, 2019
By Gbenro Adesina/Ibadan
A 39-year-old internet fraudster whose wife put to bed while he was in custody, Abada Bourdillon, was on Wednesday sentenced to three months in prison after being found guilty of criminal impersonation.
Bourdillon and his partners-in-crime were arrested on April 26, 2019 when operatives from the Ibadan zonal office of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, carried out a raid on their hideout at Quadri Ayodele Close, Liberty Estate, Laderin, Abeokuta, Ogun State.
The arrest followed an intelligence report detailing their criminal activities.
After concluding its investigations, the Commission arraigned him on May 14, 2019 before Justice Mohammed Abubakar of the Federal High Court, Abeokuta on a two-count charge bordering on criminal impersonation and possession of fake documents with intention to defraud.
Though he pleaded not guilty to the initial charge, he later approached the Commission for a plea bargain.
Due to the agreement on the terms of the plea bargain, the EFCC re-arraigned him on Wednesday on a one-count charge of criminal impersonation.
He pleaded guilty to the latter charge as presented to the court by the prosecution counsel, Shamsudeen Bashir.
Bourdillon, however, found favour before the presiding judge who slammed him with three months instead of the five months proposed in the document before the court.
The scaled-down term was informed by the plea by his lawyer, Olawale Orojo, who begged the court to temper justice with mercy, arguing that his client’s wife was delivered of a baby while the husband was still in custody, under investigation.
The court also ordered that the convict restitute the sum of USD $1000 to one of his victims and also forfeit his Black IPhone 7, Black HP Laptop and charger to the Federal Government of Nigeria, being part of the benefit he derived from his fraudulent acts.