Kwara State High Court sitting in Ilorin ,presided over by Justice Sikiru Oyinloye has sentenced a 33-year-old herder based in Tanzania, Tunde Olagunju and two others to various jail terms over offences bordering on cybercrime.
The two other convicts are Hassan Gafar Olarewaju, 29, and an Ilorin based bricklayer, Ojo Basit Adewale.
The Ilorin Zonal Command of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC,had arraigned the trio of Tunde, Hassan and Ojo on separate charges, to which they pleaded guilty.
Following the plea of guilt entered by the defendants, Aliyu Adebayo who prosecuted for the EFCC in the case against Tunde, urged the court to convict and sentence the defendant based on his admittance of guilt and the evidence before it.
Similar scenario also played out in the case against Hassan and Ojo, when Andrew Akoja who represented the Commission in the two cases asked the court to take judicial notice of the guilty plea and the plea bargain agreements entered by the defendants as well as the evidence tendered against them in sentencing them.
In his judgment ,Justice Oyinloye said the defence had failed to neutralise the allegations brought against the defendants.
The court held that there was no justiciable reason for the court to free the defendants off the hook.
Justice Oyinloye sentenced Tunde to two years imprisonment with option of fine of N650,000 (Six Hundred and Fifty Thousand Naira),while Ojo and Hassan were sentenced to one year imprisonment each with an option of 250,000,Naira and 300,000Naira respectively.
COV/ALI MUHAMMAD RABIU
