Glory Ebomah
Justice Muhammed Sani of the Federal High Court sitting in Ilorin has ordered the forfeiture of a landed property situated in Tanke area of Ilorin, Kwara State, belonging to a 19-year-old Electrician, Jimoh Opeyemi prosecuted for internet fraud by the Ilorin Zonal Command of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC.
The judge gave the forfeiture order on Thursday, June 9, 2022, while sentencing Opeyemi alongside five other persons prosecuted on separate charges for similar offences by the EFCC.
The others are Apata Lawrence Abimbola Olatosin, a Tiler; Ologunsoro Ayodeji Benjamin, from Ikere Ekiti, Ekiti State; Obadun Busayo Danjumo from Ondo West Local Government Area of Ondo State; Olajide Moshood from Modakeke area of Osun State and Johnson Samuel Oluwaseun from Olamaboro Local Government Area of Kogi State.
The defendants had pleaded guilty to their respective charges.
Aliyu Adebayo and Andrew Akoja who prosecuted the cases on behalf of the Commission reviewed the facts of the cases. The extra-judicial statements of the defendants and other incriminating items recovered from them at the point of arrest including a car, different brands of phones and laptops were tendered and admitted in evidence.
The prosecutors urged the court to consider the guilty plea entered by the defendants and all the exhibits tendered to hold that the EFCC had established its case beyond doubt.
Justice Sani, after evaluating the facts of the cases and the evidence placed before the court said he found merit in the case of the prosecution against the defendants.
The judge sentenced Opeyemi to one-year imprisonment with an option of N200,000 (Two Hundred Thousand Naira Only) fine. In addition to the forfeiture order placed on a landed property, which he acquired with proceeds of illegal activities, in Tanke area, Ilorin, the judge also ordered that the phones and a laptop used by the convict to perpetrate the crime be forfeited to the Federal Government.
Similarly, Apata was sentenced to one-year imprisonment with the option of N150,000 (One Hundred and Fifty Thousand Naira Only) fine, while the iPhone 8 used by the convict to commit the fraud was forfeited to the Federal Government.
The judge also sentenced Ologunsoro to one-year imprisonment each on counts one and two with the option of N100,000 (One Hundred Thousand Naira Only) fine on each count. The convict would also forfeit the phones used as an instrumentality of the crime and the sum of $300 (Three Hundred United States Dollars) to the Federal Government.
In the same vein, Justice Sani pronounced a prison term of one year on Obadun with the option of N100,000 (One Hundred Thousand Naira Only) fine and an order forfeiting an iPhone X used to perpetrate the crime to the Federal Government.
Olajide bagged one-year imprisonment each on count one and two with the option of N100, 000 (One Hundred Thousand Naira Only) fine on each count. The court ordered that one Infinix X 4 phone used to commit the crime to be forfeited to the Federal Government.
Equally, the judge sentenced Johnson to one-year imprisonment with the option of N150,000 (One Hundred and Fifty Thousand Naira Only) fine, while ordering the forfeiture of his phones used to perpetrate the crime and one Toyota Camry Car acquired with proceeds of the crime to the Federal Government.
In addition, the convict would raise the sum of $875 (Eight Hundred and Seventy-Five United States Dollars) as restitution.