By Joe Udo
Justices Ladiran Akintola, O.A. Lajide, Bayo Taiwo, M.O. Ishola of the Oyo State High Court sitting in Ibadan and Justice E.O. Osinuga of the Ogun State High Court, Abeokuta have convicted and sentenced fourteen (14) internet fraudsters (popularly referred to as Yahoo Boys) to various jail terms.
They were jailed after pleading guilty to one-count separate charges upon being arraigned by the Ibadan Zonal Command of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, between 23 February 2024 and 5 March 2024.
The convicts are Olajide Oluwadare Samuel, Emmanuel Victor Oluwasegun, Ajibola Najeeb Ayomide, Adebayo Akinwumi Oluwadamilare, Ayodele Wonderful Samson, Olawunmi OlusolaTaiwo, Akorede Habeeblahi Babatunde, Dasilva Olamide Samson, Oyeneye Jeremiah Abiodun, Kodagbese Emmanuel Aduragbemi, Oyebade Ayomide Olamide, Olarewaju Isaiah Oluwadamilare, Abdulazeez Abdulmalik Ifayemi Ayokun and Khalid Ayomide Hammed.
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One of the Charges reads: “That you, Oyeneye Jeremiah Abiodun ‘M’ on or about 5th May 2023, within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court, fraudulently impersonated by representing yourself to be a white woman by the name Janet Katty from United States of America, through your email address (janetkatty032@gmail.com) to one Necib Akbay, with intent to gain advantage for yourself and thereby committed an offence of personation contrary to Section 484 of the Criminal Code Law Cap 38 Laws of Oyo State, 2000.”
The convicts pleaded “guilty” when their charges were read to them.
Consequent upon their guilty pleas, prosecution counsels, Modupe Akinkoye, Abdulrasheed Suleiman, Shamsuddeen Bashir and Umar Abiso reviewed the facts of the cases and urged the courts to convict and sentence the defendants as charged.
After listening to the counsels, Justice Taiwo convicted and sentenced Samson, Taiwo, Babatunde, Olamide Samson, Olamide and Ayokun to six months of community service each and Oluwadamilare to three months of community service.
He also ordered Samson, Taiwo, Babatunde, Olamide Samson, Olamide and Ayokun to pay the sum of N100,000.00 (One Hundred Thousand Naira) fine each, alongside their jail terms and “refusal to pay the N100,000.00K fine and restitute their victims within four weeks from the judgment date or their six months community service be converted to two years imprisonment each”.
Furthermore, Justice Akintola convicted and sentenced Aduragbemi to one-year imprisonment or One Hundred Thousand Naira (N100,000.00) fine, Oluwasegun to six months community service or N50,000.00 (Fifty Thousand Naira) fine, while Abiodun was convicted and ordered to pay N50,000.00 (Fifty Thousand Naira) fine.
Also, Justice Lajide convicted and sentenced Ayomide to N750,000.00 (Seven Hundred and Fifty Thousand Naira) fine and Akinwumi Oluwadamilare bagged six months of community service and N700,000.00 (Seven Hundred Thousand Naira) fine respectively.
Justice Osinuga convicted Samuel but discharged him without a sentence while Justice Ishola convicted and sentenced Hammed to six months of community service.
The convicts were all ordered to restitute their various victims and forfeit all items recovered from them to the Federal Government of Nigeria.
They all bagged their imprisonment when they were arrested at various locations by operatives of the Ibadan Zonal Command of the EFCC. They were subsequently charged to court and convicted.
See their faces below…
