Romance Scam Sends Lecturer To Prison In Kwara
BY SEGUN ADEBAYO – For his involvement in internet love scam, a 38-year-old lecturer at the Kwara State College of Health Technology (Health Tech) Offa, Adebisi Ademola, is to spend six months cooling his feet in prison.
Justice Sikiru Oyinloye of the Kwara State High Court sitting in Ilorin on Friday, March 12, 2021 delivered the judgment convicting and sentencing Adebisi to jail for his fraudulent romance activities.
The convict was among the 33 suspected internet fraudsters arrested on September 14, 2020 in Offa area of Kwara State.
The Ilorin Zonal Office of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) prosecuted the defendant on a one count charge bordering on romance scam, an offence contrary to and punishable under Section 95 of the Penal Code Law of Northern Nigeria.
The charge by EFCC reads: “That you, Adebisi Ademola (a.k.a Dawn Ayero) sometime in September, 2020 or thereabout at Ilorin, Kwara State within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court attempted to commit an offence of cheating and impersonation by pretending and representing yourself to be a white lady called Dawn Ayero to one Donald Oakes who is purportedly in love with the said Donald Oakes as it is contained in your gmail account: dawnayero@gmail.com and thereby committed an offence contrary to and punishable under Section 95 of the Penal Code Laws of Northern Nigeria.”
The defendant pleaded guilty to the charge when it was read to him. And following his ‘guilty plea’, counsel to the anti-graft Agency, Andrew Akoja, called to the witness box, one Olumide Olasode, an EFCC operative to review facts of the case as stated by the prosecution.
According to a statement by Wilson Uwujaren, Head of Media and Publicity, EFCC, Olasode narrated how intelligence reports led to the defendant’s arrest on September 14, 2020 at Offa Local Government Area of Kwara State.
Among the evidence tendered and admitted by the Court were; petition from concerned citizens of Offa; statement of the defendant; and all the fraudulent messages printed out of his email
The prosecution counsel thereafter, urged the Court to convict the defendant based on his plea, the exhibits tendered and the evidence of the sole Prosecution Witness (PW1)
With the confession and evidence before the court, Justice Oyinloye found Ademola guilty of the charge and accordingly sentenced him to six months imprisonment or an option of a N50,000 (Fifty Thousand Naira) fine.
In addition, the Court ordered that the convict’s phone, used as instrument to perpetrate the crime, be forfeited to the Federal Government of Nigeria (FGN).
