Lifestyle

Court jails two undergraduate students one year for internet fraud

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Justice Sikiru Oyinloye of the Kwara State High Court, Ilorin, on Wednesday sentenced two students to one year imprisonment each for internet fraud.

The convicts – Olamilekan Ezekiel Adebayo of Kwara State University (KWASU) and Ibrahim Najeeb Omotosho of Kwara State Polytechnic, Ilorin, were arraigned by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) for internet fraud.

The two students pleaded guilty to their separate charge.

The EFCC counsel, Innocent Mbachie, urged the court to sentence the students based on their admittance of guilt and the evidence tendered against them.

Delivering judgment on the two cases, Justice Oyinloye said the prosecution had proved its case beyond reasonable doubt and sentenced Adebayo to one year imprisonment with an option of N100,000 fine.

He ordered that the sum of $200 which the convict raised as restitution be forfeited to the victim through the Federal Government.

The judge also ordered the forfeiture of Samsung phone recovered from the convict to the federal government.

Similarly, he sentenced Omotosho to one year imprisonment with an option of N500,000 fine.

The judge also ordered the convict to forfeit the iPhone 12 pro which he benefited from the crime to the federal government.

Entertainment

EFCC arrests son, mother for alleged N50m internet fraud

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Operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) Lagos Zonal Office, have arrested Ibeh Theophilus Uche, Chief Executive Officer, CEO, 10 Kobo Wine Place, Ikotun, Lagos alongside his mother for their alleged involvement in computer-related fraud to the tune of about N50 million in Lagos.

A statement by Wilson Uwujaren, head, media and publicity of the commisssion made available to Ripples Nigeria, said the 28-year-old suspect was arrested recently in his room in Radisson Blu Anchorage Hotel, Victoria Island, Lagos, following credible intelligence reports about his alleged criminal activities.

During interrogation, Uche, who presents himself variously as Rachael Armstrong, Keanu Reeves, Rebekah Schwarzenberger, Keanu Private, Elizabeth Hortman and Stefan Paulson, reportedly confessed to being into Bitcoin investment scam, romance scam and identity theft.

The suspect was said to have also confessed to have defrauded his victims to the tune of about N50m, since he started the criminal activities in 2020.

Uwujaren in the statement, explained that investigations revealed the suspect had been using a First Bank account belonging to his mother, who is one of his accomplices, to launder the proceeds of his alleged criminal activities.

Items recovered from the suspect are one iPhone 11 Pro Max; one iPhone 12 pro max; two MacBook Pro laptops; a PlayStation 5; an iPad and a small Nokia touch phone.

Others are a Mercedes Benz S550 2015 Sedan car and a Lexus RX 350 SUV 2016, among other items.

He said the suspect will soon be charged to court.

Entertainment

Court jails fake American officer for internet fraud in Port Harcourt

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Justice E.A Obile of the Federal High Court sitting in Port Harcourt, Rivers State has convicted and sentenced Chibueze Okenwa (a.k.a Rodriguz), a fake United States of American military officer, to two years imprisonment for impersonation contrary to Section 22 (2) (b) ( i & ii) of the Cybercrime (Prohibition, Prevention, Etc.) Act, 2015.

He was initially arraigned on March 4, 2021 by the Port Harcourt Zonal Office of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and pleaded “not guilty” to one-count charge bordering on impersonation with intent to gain monetary advantage for self.

At the resumed hearing of his case on March 18, 2021, Okenwa opted to change his plea. He was re-arraigned and pleaded “guilty” to the one-count charge.

The charge reads: “that you Chibueze okenwa (a.k.a Weirt Rodriguz), in 2020, within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court, fraudulently impersonated yourself as Weirt Rodriguz, a United State Military Officer to one Katia Massoni from Brazil with intent to gain monetary advantage for yourself and thereby committed an offence punishable under Section 22 (2) (b) ( i & ii) of the Cybercrime (Prohibition, Prevention, Etc.) Act, 2015”.

In view of his plea of “guilty”, prosecution counsel, M. Ibekwute urged the court to convict him accordingly. However, defense counsel, J.I Owubokiri prayed the court to temper justice with mercy.

Justice Obile convicted and sentenced Okenwa to two (2) years imprisonment with an option of fine of Three Hundred and Fifty Thousand Naira (N350, 000.00).

The judge also ordered that the phone which was used to commit the crime, (a gold and white-coloured Blu dual Sim smart phone) be forfeited to the Federal Government through disposal by public auction and the proceeds paid into the Treasury Single Account, TSA of the Federal Government.

Entertainment

Lecturer, twins jailed for Internet fraud, love scam in Kwara

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A lecturer at the Kwara State College of Health Technology, Offa, Abdullahi Opashola, and twin brothers, Taiye and Kehinde Adebayo, on Thursday, were convicted by Justice Adenike Akinpelu of the Kwara State High Court sitting in Ilorin, over offences bordering on impersonation and Internet fraud.

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) prosecuted Opashola on a separate one-count charge, while the Adebayos were prosecuted on seven counts each, which they all pleaded guilty to.

In a statement released by Wilson Iwijaren, Head, Media and Publicity, EFCC, the charge against Opashola read: “That you, Opashola Abdullahi, (alias Devin Snow), sometime in August 2020 in Ilorin, within the jurisdiction of this honourable court, did attempt to cheat by impersonation, by portraying yourself as a female, named Devine Snow, via your email address, devinesnow677@gmail.com, to one Eugene Myvett, to induce him to send you $200, a representation you knew to be false, thereby committing an offence contrary to Section 95 of the Penal Code and punishable under Section 324 of the same law.”

Meanwhile, the charge against Taiye read: “That you, Taiye Adebayo, sometime in January 2020, at Ilorin, within the judicial division of the Kwara State High Court, did cheat one Gary Brenton, who you met on TWOO dating site, of the sum of $490 received via gift cards when you pretended to be a female, thereby committing an offence contrary to Section 320 of the Penal Code and punishable under Section 322 of the same Penal Code.”

Following the guilty plea of the defendants, two operatives of the EFCC, Paul Kera and Emezie Dominic testified against Opashola and the twins, respectively.

Delivering judgment on the two cases, Justice Akinpelu found Opashola guilty of the charge against him and sentenced him to four months’ imprisonment, however, the 26-year-old lecturer was given an option to pay a fine of N150,000.

Meanwhile, for Taiye and Kehinde, Justice Akinpelu pronounced each of them guilty as charged and sentenced them to 42 months imprisonment each (six months on each of the seven counts) preferred against them, however, she gave the brothers an option of fine of N50,000 on each of the count.

He ordered that the laptops and phones used by the convicts to commit the crimes to be forfeited to the Federal Government.

Entertainment

21-yr-old 400L student of Oduduwa university arrested for internet fraud

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The Osun State Police Command has arrested one Musa Mohammed Musa, a 400 level student of the Political Science Department of Oduduwa University, Ipetu Modu, Osun State for allegedly defrauding unsuspecting Nigerians using the internet.

Police sources told Ripples Nigeria that Musa had opened a fake Twitter account in the name of a popular social media personality, Jaruma Empire, through which he garnered more than 10,000 followers before luring and duping some of them with ‘giveaways’.

The suspect was also alleged to have perfected the act by opening an account with Access Bank Plc in the name of Nigeria’s leading logistics company, GIG Logistics, through which he defrauded several victims by asking them to pay money for freight into the account.

Ripples Nigeria also gathered that Musa, on receiving money transfers, immediately proceeded to block further communications with his victims.

The bubble, however, burst when in September 2020, a customer alerted GIG Logistics via its Twitter handle that someone had opened an account in their name at Access Bank to receive freight charges from customers online.

Investigations into the criminal act, inside sources said, commenced with formal petitions lodged with the Lagos State Police command at Ojuelegba and State Criminal Investigation Department in Panti, Yaba.

Months of painstaking probe were said to have led police detectives to Abuja where Musa had registered a telephone line for his nefarious activities.

The lead eventually led the police team to Modomo in Osun state, from where detectives pinned down the suspect in the Moore area of Ile-Ife and got him arrested.

Musa was said to have been arrested with a laptop and an exotic phone.

Police authorities at Moore, Ile-Ife confirmed that investigations were on-going to identify and arrest other members of the internet fraud syndicate but that a case file was being prepared to charge Musa to court.

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