Yusuf Babatunde, a 29-year-old farmer, was found guilty and sentenced to three years in prison by Justice Mohammed Sani of the Federal High Court in Ilorin, Kwara State.
Three others, Abdulrahman Aileru, Uthman Busari, and Adewole Iyanuoluwa, were also sentenced to prison for offenses bordering on impersonation.
Babatunde is from Osi in Kwara State’s Ekiti Local Government Area, while Aileru is from Kwara State’s Ilorin South LGA, and Busari and Iyanuoluwa are from Oyo and Kwara, respectively.
The four defendants were brought to court by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission’s Ilorin command for offences involving Internet fraud.
They pleaded guilty to the EFCC’s charges against them individually.
Sesan Ola, Andrew Akoja, and Rasheedat Alao, attorneys for the prosecution, reviewed the facts of the case.
The attorneys presented exhibits that were taken from the defendants at the time of arrest and were admitted into evidence.
The items included phones, laptops, a car, and the defendants’ extrajudicial statements.
They urged the court to find the defendants guilty based on their admission of guilt and the undisputed evidence presented to it.
In his ruling, Justice Sani agreed that the prosecution had established the cases beyond a reasonable doubt and found the defendants guilty as charged.
Babatunde was sentenced to three years in prison and a fine of N1,578,000 by the judge.
Similarly, Justice Sani sentenced Aileru to a year in prison with a fine of N200,000 as an option.
On count one, the court sentenced Busari to one year in prison with a fine option of N1,182,633, and on count two, the court sentenced him to one year in prison with a fine option of N100,000.
In a similar vein, Justice Sani sentenced Iyanuoluwa to six months in prison on counts one and two, with a fine of N100,000 available on each count.
The court also ordered that the convict’s 2007 Toyota Camry, iPhone X, and HP laptop be forfeited to the federal government.
