Court convicts, sentences ‘army general’ to seven years imprisonment for impersonation

The Lagos State Special Offences Court presided by Justice Oluwatoyin Taiwo, on Thursday, convicted, an impostor, Bolarinwa Abiodun, who impersonated as an army general to defraud people of over N266 million, sentencing him to seven years imprisonment.

Abiodun, at the resumption of proceedings on Thursday had changed his pleading from not guilty to guilty in the 13 counts charges the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) raised against him.

The EFCC arraigned the convict on 11th April 2022, on charges of forgery of material military document, offences committed between June and December 2020 in Lagos. The commission argued that offence is contrary to Section 1 (3) of the Advance Fee Fraud and other Related Offences Act 2006; Section 363 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State 2015 and Section 6 of the Advance Fee Fraud and other Related Offences Act No 14 of 2006, respectively.

The convict had pleaded “not guilty” to the charges before Justice Taiwo on 14th April 2022 and applied for bail; the court dismissed his bail application, after the prosecutor argued that the bail constituted a flight risk, and demanded an accelerated hearing.

The victim, Bamidele Olusegun Safiriyu, had told Justice Oluwatoyin Taiwo that the convict used the name of former President Olusegun Obasanjo to defraud him of N266.5 million.