A Federal High Court in Ibadan has on Friday sentenced an Internet fraudster, Ibrahim Tunde Akinsola, to one-year imprisonment for internet scam.
Justice Patricia Ajoku in his ruling at Adeoyo Ring Road in Ibadan, also ruled that Tunde Akinsola should pay the sum of $1,700 (One Thousand and Seven Hundred American Dollars) to his victim, Richard Wilson.
The judge also pronounced that the convict forfeited his iPhone 7 Plus mobile phone to the Nigerian government.
Akinsola, 22, was prosecuted by the Ibadan Zonal office of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, on an amended one-count charge of fraudulent impersonation.
“This judgment is in line with the provisions of Section 270 of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act 2015 that provides for a reduced sentence for anyone who enters a plea bargain agreement,” Ajoku pronounced.
“Consequently, Tunde Akinsola is sentenced to 12 months in prison for the crime.
“The sentence starts from the date he was first arrested, and all the exhibits found in possession of the convict are now forfeited to the Federal Government of Nigeria,” the judge said.
Earlier, the EFCC counsel, Ibadan zonal office, Mr Mabas Maburb, told the court that the convict was charged on a one-count amended charge bordering on impersonation.
He further disclosed that the anti-graft agency’s operatives arrested Tunde-Akinsola after receiving a reliable intelligence from concerned members of the community that he was operating with a “deceptive” email address to take undue advantage of unsuspecting foreigners.
The prosecutor also revealed that many suspicious documents of how the convict had defrauded foreigners were printed out from his email address.
Maburb further said that Tunde-Akinsola restituted an iPhone 7 and cash of US$1,750 which formed proceeds of the crime.
The EFCC counsel informed the court that the offence contravened the provisions of Section 22A of the Cyber Crime Prohibition and Prevention Act 2015.
Following his guilty plea, prosecution counsel, Mabas Mabur pleaded the court to convict and sentence him accordingly.
Delivering judgment, Justice Patricia Ajoku held that she convicted and sentenced Tunde-Akinsola based on the evidence before her as well as the plea bargain agreement he entered into with the EFCC.
“This judgment is in line with the provisions of Section 270 of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act (ACJA) 2015 that provides for a reduced sentence for anyone who enters a plea bargain agreement,” Ajoku pronounced.
“Consequently, Tunde-Akinsola is sentenced to 12 months in prison for the crime.
“The sentence starts from the date he was first arrested, and all the exhibits found in possession of the convict are now forfeited to the Federal Government of Nigeria.”
Maburb added that Tunde-Akinsola committed the crime sometimes in January in Ibadan, Oyo State.
