The Ilorin Zonal Office of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, on Friday, December 4, 2020 secured the conviction of three young men over their involvement in offences bordering on internet fraud.
The convicts are: Tesleem Ajayi, Oladimeji Oluwatimileyin and John Inalegwu Okewu.
While Ajayi and Oluwatimileyin were convicted on two counts each, Okewu was jailed on one count of fraud by Justice Mahmood Abdulgafar of the Kwara State High Court sitting in Ilorin.
One of the counts against Ajayi reads: “That you, Tesleem Ajayi, (Alias Alvarado Mall), sometime in the month of July 2020, in Ilorin, within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court, did cheat by impersonation, by portraying yourself as a white female named Alvarado Mall to one Danielle Fatai and in that guise induced him to send you $100USD via Amazon gift card, a representation you knew to be false and thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 324 of the Penal Code and punishable under the same Section of the Law”
For Oluwatimileyin, one of the charges reads: “That you, Oladimeji Oluwatimileyin (a.k.a Snyder Paul) sometime in October 2019 or thereabout at Offa, Kwara State within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court dishonestly induced one Linda Rhind Medeiros, a white woman to send you an E-bay gift card worth $30 USD, when you knowingly pretended and represented yourself to be a white military man, Snyder Paul, who was in love with her, a representation you knew to be false and thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 321 and punishable under Section 324 of the Penal Code Laws of Northern Nigeria”.
The charge against Okewu reads: “That you, John Inalegwu Okewu on or about September 2020, in Ilorin, within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court, did attempt to cheat by impersonation, by portraying yourself as a single white male named John Roderick to one female named Marling Alfaro in order to induce her to send you money, a representation you knew to be false and thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 95 of the Penal Code and punishable under Section 324 of the same Law ”
Each of the convicts pleaded guilty to the alleged offence.
The prosecuting counsel, Andrew Akoja, while reviewing the facts of the case led the witnesses in evidence and tendered exhibits against the defendants.
In his judgment, Justice Abdulgafar held that, “Based on the unchallenged and uncontradicted testimonies of the prosecution witnesses, the plea of the defendants and exhibits tendered, this Honourable Court holds the view that the prosecution has proved its case beyond reasonable doubts”.
The Judge, thereafter convicted and sentenced Ajayi and Oluwatimileyin to four months imprisonment, while John bagged three months.
“All the phones and money recovered from the convicts are also forfeited to the Federal Government”, the judge ordered.
First Published 2020
