The Ilorin Zonal Command of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission in Kwara State has secured the conviction of a 26-year-old forex trader: Kolawole Temidayo Joshua, and two others for offences bordering on internet fraud.
The two others whose convictions were secured by the EFCC are Abdullahi Isiak and Daniel Roland Orji.
The convicts: Joshua, Isiak and Orji, were arraigned on October 10, 2023 on separate charges of one count each before Justice Mahmoud Abdulgafar of the Kwara State High sitting in Ilorin.
The charge against Joshua reads: “That you, Kolawole Temidayo Joshua, sometime between April and May 2023 at Ilorin within the Judicial Division of the High Court, did cheat by personation, when you pretended to be one Mia Phillips vide your Google Voice account: denissefranptonphm85@gmail.com and induced one Daniel Murphy a.k.a Wagba Wealth and Danny, to part with gross sum of $400 (Four Hundred US Dollars) through Gift Cards and thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 321 of the Penal Code and punishable under Section 324 of the Penal Code.”
They pleaded guilty to their respective charges, prompting the court to adjourn for judgment.
At the resumed hearing on October 11, 2023, EFCC counsel, Muinat Bello and Isabel Adeniran, while reviewing the facts of the cases, tendered exhibits including phones, extrajudicial statements and money, which was brought as restitutions by the defendants and admitted in evidence.
Thereafter, they prayed to the court to convict and sentence them accordingly.
Justice Abdulgafar thereafter convicted and sentenced them.
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Joshua was sentenced to six months imprisonment with an option of a fine of N500,000 and an order that one iPhone 12 and the sum of $200 recovered from him be forfeited to the Federal Government.
The court also sentenced Isiak to six months imprisonment, which is to be suspended, and ordered that his iPhone 12 Promax used as an instrument of crime be forfeited to the Federal Government.
Equally, Justice Abdulgafar sentenced Orji to six months imprisonment with an option of a fine of N150,000, while his iPhone 6 and the sum of $250 were forfeited to the Federal Government.
The convicts made their way into the Correctional Centre when they were arrested by operatives of the Ilorin Zonal Command of the EFCC for internet-related offences.