Justice Mahmud Abdulgafar of the Kwara State High Court in Ilorin on Friday convicted and sentenced Oyelowo Mayowa Fawas, 20, from Atiba Local Government Area of Oyo State to 12 months imprisonment for offences bordering on cybercrime and possession of fraudulent funds.
The defendant was prosecuted on two counts by the Ilorin Zonal Command of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC.
Oyelowo, among others things, disguised as ‘a white female professional prostitute’, practicing in the United States of America, to swindle his unsuspecting victims of various sums before the long arm of the law caught up with him.
Count 2 of the charge reads: “That you, Oyelowo Mayowa Fawas, sometime between the months of June 2020 to June 2021 in Ilorin, Kwara State, within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court, did knowingly have under your control, the sum of N57,837,710.00 (Fifty Seven Million, Eight Hundred and Thirty Seven Thousand, Seven Hundred and Ten Naira) being paid to your Access Bank, Account Number 0804708906, reasonably suspected to have been unlawfully obtained and thereby committed an offence contrary to and punishable under Section 319A of the Penal Code”.
The defendant pleaded guilty when the charges were read to him.
Following his plea, counsel to the EFCC, Innocent Mbachie, called a witness, Udo Iniubong, an operative of the Commission to review the facts of the case. The witness told the court how credible intelligence led to the arrest of the defendant in Malete area of Kwara State.
The extra-judicial statements of the defendant, iPhones and laptop recovered from him at the point of arrest were tendered and admitted in evidence.
In his judgment, Justice Abdulgafar found Oyelowo guilty of the two counts and sentenced him to 6 months imprisonment on each count with option of N100,000.00 (One Hundred Thousand Naira) fine on each count.
The judge ordered that the phones and laptop used to perpetrate the crime and the sum of $700 (Seven Hundred United State Dollars) raised as restitution by the defendant be forfeited to the Federal Government.
