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 intent
to gain advantage for yourseif 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
In view of 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 in
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 managers 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 Iphone 15 and Hp 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, IPhone 14 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
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