The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC has arraigned one Etchie Joseph before Justice Adebisi Akinlade of the Lagos High Court, Ikeja on a three count charge for offences bordering on attempt to obtain money by false pretence and possession of fraudulent documents.
One of the charges reads: “Etchie Joseph ( a.k.a Stanley Oberman) on or about the 30th day of October, 2007 at Pulsenet Cybercafé No. 24 Opebi Road, in Ikeja within the Ikeja Judicial Division had in your possession a document containing false pretence to wit: an e-mail dated 25th day of September 2007 purportedly to be written by Stanley Oberman and falsely represented that Stanley Oberman had the sum of $5,450 ( Five Thousand Four Hundred and Fifty United State Dollars) to be transferred to Dale.”
Joseph was arrested by Operatives of the EFCC at a cybercafé in Lagos for falsely presenting himself as Stanley Oberman and representing himself as a white man to one Veronica Pena.
Joseph claimed to be residing at LA Grange, KY 40031, United States of America.
In his statement, he confessed that he actually tried to defraud Pena but was not successful and was about to give up when he was arrested.
However when the charges were read to him, the accused pleaded not guilty, prompting the prosecution counsel, Francis Usani, to ask the court to fix a date for trial.
However, defence counsel, O. F. Latona, told the court that he had not filed any application for bail because they got the notice of the arraignment rather late. He, therefore, pleaded for a short adjournment to argue the application.
Justice Akinlade scolded Latona for the request.
She asked: “You have not presented any document before the court, not even a bail application and you are talking about adjournment?”
She however adjourned the case till January 19, 2013 for hearing of bail application and ordered that the suspect be remanded in Kirikiri Maximum Prison.
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