Two students of the Kwara State University, KWASU, Malete, Animasahun Rokeeb Mayowa and Lawal Alamin Tewogbola were on Tuesday, February 1, 2022 convicted and sentenced to various jail terms by Justice Adenike Akinpelu of the Kwara State High Court in Ilorin over offences bordering on cyber fraud.
The duo of Animasahun and Lawal, who are natives of Oyo and Offa in Oyo and Kwara States, respectively were prosecuted on separate charge by the Ilorin Zonal Command of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC.
The defendants pleaded guilty to the charge against them.
Following their plea, counsel to the EFCC, Rasheedat Alao, through Salaudeen Abdulrasaq and Kaludeen Yahaya, who are operatives of the Commission reviewed the facts of the cases against Animasahun and Lawal.
The witnesses told the court how intelligence reports led to the arrest of the defendants in Malete Area of Kwara State with several incriminating documents found on them. Several documents including their extra-judicial statements and iphones were tendered and admitted in evidence.
Alao thereafter urged the court to consider the plea of the defendants, the extra-judicial statements, and exhibits tendered and hold that a prima-facie case had been established against the defendants and convict them as charged.
Justice Akinpelu in her judgement agreed that the prosecution had satisfactorily established its case against each of the defendants. Consequently, he pronounced them guilty.
The judge sentenced Animasahun to six months imprisonment on the lone count against him with option of fine of N150,000.00 (One Hundred and Fifty Thousand Naira Only). The court ordered that a Toyota Camry Car 2007 model, which was recovered from him at the point of arrest and iphone which he used to perpetrate the crime be forfeited to the Federal Government.
Similarly, Justice Akinpelu sentenced Lawal to six months imprisonment on each of the two counts against him, which would run concurrently with option of N100,00 (One Hundred Thousand Naira Only) on each count. The court also ordered the forfeiture of the sum of $225 (Two Hundred and Twenty Five Dollars), which he benefited from the crime and iphone 6, which was used as instrumentality for the crime to the Federal Government.
