The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, Ibadan Zonal Office, on Monday, May 20, 2019, secured the convictions of two fraudsters, Akinyemi Toheeb and Adebunmi Adisa before Justice Patricia Ajoku of the Federal High Court, sitting in Ibadan, Oyo State.
Akinyemi Toheeb, who claimed to be a final year student of the Ibadan Polytechnic was found guilty of a one-count amended charge of sending indecent images through his email address and was accordingly convicted and sentenced to five months in prison.
Akinyemi Toheeb had employed the trick to defraud people, especially foreigners before his arrest and prosecution by the commission.
According to the charge sheet, the offence for which he was arraigned, is contrary to Section 24 (1)(a) and punishable under Section 24 (1)(b) of the Cyber Crimes (Prohibition, Prevention Etc) Act, 2015.
The EFCC had initially arraigned Akinyemi Toheeb on a two-count charge on April 30, but the charges were amended to reflect the conditions of the plea bargain agreement he reached with the Commission.
Dated May 17, 2019, and filed same day, the plea bargain agreement proposed a five months jail term, payment of $350 (Three Hundred and Fifty United States Dollar) to his victim as restitution, and forfeiture of items recovered from him to the Federal Government of Nigeria.
Above all, Akinyemi Toheeb agreed to plead guilty to the amended charge as proposed to the court.
All the conditions were met during the resumed session of the court on Monday, leading to the conviction of the accused person.
Similarly, Justice Ladiran Akintola of the Oyo State High Court, sitting in Ibadan, on Monday, convicted and sentenced Adisa to eight months in prison.
The convict, who was earlier arraigned on May 22, 2018, before Justice Munta Abimbola, the Oyo State Chief Judge and presiding jurist in Court 1, was originally facing nine-count offences that border on obtaining money by false pretence and forgery.