Justice Adenike Akinpelu of the Kwara State High Court sitting in Ilorin on Thursday convicted a lecturer at the Kwara State College of Health Technology, Offa, Abdullahi Opashola, and twin brothers, Taiye and Kehinde Adebayo, over offences bordering on impersonation and Internet fraud.
Opashola and the Adebayos were prosecuted by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission on separate charges to which they pleaded guilty.
A statement by the Head of Media and Publicity of EFCC, Wilson Uwujaren, said while Opashola was prosecuted on one count, the twins were found guilty of seven counts each.
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 personation, by portraying yourself as a female, named Devine Snow, via your email address, [email protected]
Count six of 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 vide 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.
The 26-year-old lecturer was, however, given an option of fine of N150,000.
For Taiye and Kehinde, Justice Akinpelu pronounced each of them guilty of the charges and sentenced them to 42 months’ imprisonment each (six months on each of the seven counts) preferred against them, which would run concurrently.
The judge also 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 be forfeited to the Federal Government.
Punch