The Lagos Zonal Directorate of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, has secured the conviction and sentencing of the trio of Omueti Favour Okhigbe, Asa Oluwapelumi and Olusoga Marvellous, who were arraigned on separate charges bordering on impersonation, before Justice A.O. Owoeye of the Federal High Court sitting in Ikoyi, Lagos.
The charge against Akhigbe reads: “That you, Omueti Favour Akhigbe, sometime in December 2024, in Lagos, within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court, fraudulently impersonated one Tracy Barbour by holding yourself out as such, with the intent to gain advantage for yourself and thereby committed an offence contrary to and punishable under Section 22(2)(b) of the Cybercrimes (Prohibition, Prevention etc) Act, 2015.”
The charge against Oluwapelumi reads:” That you, Asa Oluwapelumi, sometime in December 2024 in Lagos, within the jurisdiction of this Honorable Court, fraudulently impersonated one Harsharvin by holding yourself out as such, with the intent to gain advantage for yourself and thereby committed an offence contrary to and punishable under Section 22(2)(b) of the Cybercrimes (Prohibition, Prevention etc) Act, 2015.”
The charge against Marvellous reads:” That you, Olusoga Marvellous (a.k.a John Heately), on or about the 12th day of December 2024 in Lagos, within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court, fraudulently impersonated one ‘John Heately’ by holding yourself out as such on your Facebook account with the intent to gain advantage for yourself and thereby committed an offence contrary to and punishable under Section 22(2)(b)of the Cybercrimes (Prohibition, Prevention, etc) Act, 2015”.
They all pleaded “guilty” to the charges when they were read to them.
Given their pleas, prosecution counsel, Bilkisu Buhari-Bala, called on Seidu Jibril, an investigator with the EFCC, to review the facts of the case before the court.
According to Seidu, the suspects were members of an Organized Cybercrime Syndicate Network, OCSN, operating iin different parts of Lagos State.
He said: “A team of operatives raided their apartments, where they were arrested.
A search was conducted in their apartments and several cars as well as devices were recovered from them.”
Buhari-Bala then tendered the suspects’ confessional statements as well as items recovered from them, while urging the court to convict them as charged.
Justice Owoeye found them guilty of the offences and sentenced them accordingly.
Akhigbe was sentenced to two years imprisonment, with an option of fine in the sum of N350,000.00( Three Hundred and Fifty Thousand Naira) and his iPhone device and manager cheque of N500,000 were ordered forfeited to the Federal Government of Nigeria.
The judge sentenced Oluwapelumi to two years imprisonment, with an option of fine in the sum of N550,000.00 (Five Hundred and Fifty Thousand Naira) and also ordered the iPhone15 and HpHP laptop recovered from him forfeited to the Federal Government of Nigeria.
Marvellous was sentenced to five years imprisonment, with an option of fine in the sum of N600,000.00 (Five Hundred Thousand Naira) and his black Toyota Camry, IiPhone14 Promax and Samsung Galaxy S8 were ordered forfeited to the Federal Government of Nigeria.
All the convicts bagged their imprisonment when they were arrested by operatives of the EFCC for internet fraud. They were charged to court and convicted.
