Fashion designer, 2 others imprisoned for cybercrime
A Kwara High Court sitting in Ilorin on Wednesday sentenced a 24-year-old fashion designer, Muhammed Ayub, and two others, to six years imprisonment for offences bordering on internet fraud and possession of fraudulent funds.
The two others are Odelade Samuel and Olowokere Jamiu.
The Ilorin Zonal Command of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission(EFCC) secured the convinction when it arraigned the trio of Ayub, Odelade and Olowokere on separate charges, to which they pleaded guilty.
Count one of the charge against Odelade reads:
“That you, Odelade Samuel sometime between January 2021 and December 2022 in Ilorin, Kwara State, within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court, did knowingly had under your control the gross sum of N3,513,549 paid into your Union Bank Account No: 0123132913, which is reasonably suspected to be unlawfully obtained and thereby committed an offence contrary to and punishable under Section 319(A) of the Penal Code law and punishable under the same Section.”
Upon the guilty pleas by the defendants, Sesan Ola and Rashidat Alao, who prosecuted the cases on behalf of the commission, reviewed the facts of the cases through witnesses who are operatives of the EFCC.
In his judgement, Justice Yusuf Adebayo said the the prosecution had established the essential ingredients of the cases to warrant the conviction of the defendants.
The Judge sentenced Odelade to six months imprisonment on each of the two counts with option of N100,000.
Justice Adebayo sentenced Ayub to six months imprisonment with option of N50,000 and ordered that one iPhone 7, one apple iPhone 12 and the sum of $700 which the convict raised as restitution be forfeited to the federal government.
The court also ordered the convict to bring the sum of $250 as restitution.
Similarly, Olowokere was sentenced to six months imprisonment with option of N50,000 on each count.
The court ordered the forfeiture of convict’s iPhone 11 and the sum of $1350 to the federal government.
