23rd November, 2021
Thirteen internet fraudsters have been convicted before different Justices of the Federal and State High Courts in Ibadan and Osogbo, the capital city of Oyo and Osun State.
Their convictions were secured by the Ibadan Zonal Command of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, on Monday, November 22, 2021.
The convicts are Abiodun Babatunde Sowunmi, Adeyemi Babatunde Hammed, Abeeb Abiola Badmus, Adebayo Akorede Saheed, Ganiyu Qudus Olawale and Omolade Ayemidotun Moses. Others are Taofeeq Toheeb Atanda, Oyekanmi Qudus Oyewale, Alabi Ifeoluwa Olamide, B.T.D Multi global Limited, Adewuyi Adetoun, Owolabi Toheeb Tolulope and Taiwo Shedrack Akpoyen.
The convicts were prosecuted on separate charges.
Justice Uche Agomoh of Federal High Court, Ibadan, found Sowunmi, Olawale, Omolade and Badmus guilty of offence of impersonation contrary to Section 22 (2)(b)(1) Cybercrimes (Prohibition, Prevention, Etc) Act, 2015 and punishable under Section 22 (2)(b) of the same Act.
While Sowunmi and Olawale were sentenced to ten months imprisonment each, Omolade and Badmus bagged nine and six months imprisonment each.
Similarly, Justice Ladiran Akintola of the Oyo State High Court, Ibadan, convicted Alabi, Atanda, Oyekanmi, Adeyemi and Adebayo on separate charges of obtaining property by false pretence contrary to Section 419 of the Criminal Code Cap 38 Laws of Oyo State, 2000.
The judge sentenced Alabi to a term of three months of community service, while Atanda, Adeyemi, Adebayo and Oyekanmi bagged two months of community service each.
In the same vein, Justice Nathaniel Ayo-Emmanuel of Federal High Court sitting in Oshogbo found B.T.D Multiglobal Limited guilty of counts 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7 preferred against them by the EFCC.
Trouble started sometime in December 2017 when the Commission received a petition alleging B.T.D Multiglobal Limited and Adewumi fraudulent misappropriated N1billion, received about 8,000 investors.
The court, while ordering the revocation of the certificate of incorporation of the company, ordered that the Corporate Affairs Commission should windup the company. According to the judge, ‘the proceeds therefrom as well as the sum of N32million recovered in the course of an investigation should be used to pay the investors’.
The judge also found Adewuyi, who claimed to be 20 years old and a student of the Federal University of Technology; Akure as at the time the offence was committed guilty of counts 1 and 2 and imposed a prison term of three years on each of the two counts, to run concurrently.
In the same token, Justice Ayo-Emmanuel sentenced Akpoyen to ten months imprisonment over fraudulent impersonation, while ordering a prison term of six-year on Owolabi for impersonation and possession of documents.
The convicts are to restitute their various victims and forfeit the items recovered from them to the Federal Government.
See the faces of the internet fraudsters below:
