Court jails engineer, POS operator for cybercrime in Ilorin

Glory Ebomah

The Ilorin Zonal Command of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, has secured the conviction of a certain Oyewole Maruf Damilare, who claimed to be an Engineer from Ifedore Local Government Area of Osun State and one Olusanya Idowu Lukman, a PoS operator from Remo North Local Government Area of Ogun State.

Justice Mahmoud Abdulgafar of the Kwara State High Court, Ilorin convicted and sentenced the duo to various jail terms, having found them guilty of offences bordering on cybercrime and possession of proceeds of illegal activities levelled against them by the EFCC.

The Commission arraigned Oyewole on two count charges of cheating by personation and possession of proceeds of unlawful activities, while Olusanya was prosecuted on one count of personation whence he allegedly posed as one Lena Kincy on Facebook to scam unsuspecting victims.

The defendants were arrested on April 22, 2022, at Agric Estate, Ilorin, Kwara State by operatives of EFCC following intelligence reports on the activities of some internet fraudsters operating in the area.

Head, Media and Publicity, EFCC, Wilson Uwujaren, said the defendants pleaded guilty to their respective charges.

Rasheedat Alao who represented the Commission in the two cases reviewed the facts of the cases. She presented witnesses who are operatives of the Commission. The witnesses, while testifying tendered the extra-judicial statements of the defendants, different brands of phones recovered from them at the point of arrest and several fraudulent messages printed from their devices, which were admitted in evidence.

Thereafter, Alao urged the court to consider the guilty pleas, the extra-judicial statements of the defendants and all the exhibits tendered before it to convict the defendants as charged.

In his judgment, Justice Abdulgafar said the court had carefully evaluated the evidence placed before it, the guilty plea of by the defendants and all the exhibits tendered and he was convinced that the prosecution had not only established the elements of the alleged offences against the defendants but had proved it beyond reasonable doubt.

He sentenced Oyewole to three months imprisonment on count 1 with option N250,000 (Two Hundred and Fifty Thousand Naira Only) and six months imprisonment on count 2 with option N500,000 (Five Hundred Thousand Naira Only) fine. The court ordered that one iPhone 12 which he used to perpetrate the crime and the sum of $400 (Four Hundred United States Dollars), which he benefited from the illegal activities be forfeited to the Federal Government.

Similarly, Justice Abdulgafar sentenced Olusanya to six months imprisonment with an option N250,000 (Two Hundred and Fifty Thousand Naira Only) fine. The judge also ordered that the iPhone 11 and Apple MacBook laptop, which the convict used to perpetrate the crime and the sum of $400 (Four Hundred United States Dollars) from which he benefited from the crime be forfeited to the Federal Government.