 |
| Adeyemi Israel Abiodun |
The NANS leader is one of 40 people who were found guilty on individual counts by four judges of the Oyo State High Court in Ibadan.
The EFCC's Ibadan Zonal Command prosecuted the cases, according to Wilson Uwujaren, the organization's head of media and publicity, who made this claim in a statement made accessible to our correspondent on Wednesday.
According to the anti-corruption agency, their violations of Sections 419, 467, 484, 516, and 508 of the Criminal Code Law Cap 38, Laws of Oyo State, 2000, centered on impersonation, collecting money under false pretense, obtaining property under false pretense, and forgery.
Abiodun was charged before Justice Iyabo Yerima, while 39 other defendants were tried between August 15 and August 23, 2022, before Justices Bayo Taiwo, Akintola Ladiran, and Olusola Adetujoye.
The one-count charge against Abiodun reads:
“That you, Adeyemi Israel Abiodun and Odaise Precious Abiola (aka Prezzy) (at large) on or about 30th March, 2022 at Ibadan, within the Ibadan Judicial Division did conspire to forge various United States of America Banks Cheques and purport same to be genuine and thereby committed the offence of conspiracy to commit forgery contrary to Section 516 and 467 of the Criminal Code Law, Cap 38, Laws of Oyo State, 2000.”
Abiodun and other defendants entered a "guilty" plea to the allegations made against them by the EFCC.
In light of the defendants' admissions of guilt, the prosecution's attorneys, Modupe Akinkoye, Oyelakin Oyediran, Oluwatoyin Owodunni, Chidi Okoli, Abdulrasheed Suleiman, Mabas Mabur, and Samsuddeen Bashir, reviewed the facts of the cases, submitted documents and confessional statements as exhibits, and urged the courts to find the defendants guilty and sentence them accordingly.
As a result, Abiodun, Daniel, and Ayomide were found guilty and given one-year prison terms without the option of paying a fine, while Akiniyi received a sentence of three months in prison and six months of community service.
Other defendants were found guilty and given community service sentences of six months each.
Additionally, the court ordered Abiodun to forfeit a white Mercedes Benz CLA-250 with a customized NANS plate number worth $1 million, a gold neck chain and one ice neck chain worth N3.6 million, bitcoin worth $58, 854.88 USD, one Apple MacBook Pro 2020 Model, and an iPhone 12 Pro Max to the Federal Government of Nigeria. The court also ordered Abiodun to pay $1,000 USD (one thousand United States dollars) in restitution.
Other prisoners were told to return their victims and forfeit whatever taken from them.
It will be recalled that on March 30, 2022, 79 (seventy-nine) other students from the Federal University, Oye-Ekiti, Ekiti State, including 200-level Economics and Development Studies student Abiodun, were detained in a sting operation by agents from the EFCC's Ibadan Zonal Command in the Sango neighborhood of Ibadan, Oyo State, for allegedly engaging in online fraud.
Investigations showed that Abiodun received N195, 274, 331.00 (One Hundred and Ninety-Five Million, Two Hundred and Seventy Four Thousand, Three Hundred and Thirty One Naira) as a cumulative heist from cyber-fraud involving the forging of more than 25 US banks' checks between July 2021 and March 2022.
Source: PUNCH News
