Ex-convict bags fresh 28 years for cyberfraud

Justice Mahmud Abdulgafar of the Kwara State High Court, Ilorin on Monday, November 29, 2021, convicted a 29-year-old ex-convict, Joshua Ajayi Oluwatobi for impersonating the Dean Student Affairs, University of Ilorin, and others to defraud unsuspecting students seeking to pay school fees and hostel accommodation.

The Ilorin Zonal Command of the EFCC had on Tuesday, November 23, 2021, arraigned Oluwatobi on a four-count charge bordering on fraud, attempt to defraud, and impersonation, to which he pleaded guilty.

Oluwatobi had sometime in June 2020 been convicted by Justice Sikiru Oyinloye of the Kwara State High Court for a similar offence.

After spending time at Mandala Correctional Centre, the convict went back to crime and was again arrested by operatives of the EFCC and brought before the court.

Following the plea of guilt entered by the defendant, prosecuting counsel, Andrew Akoja, presented a witness, one Musa Muhammad Sani, an operative of the EFCC, through whom he reviewed the facts of the case and presented documents to establish the culpability of the defendant in the crime.

Akoja urged the court to consider the uncontroverted evidence of the prosecution before it, the admittance of guilt by the defendant, and convict him as charged.

Delivering judgment, Justice Abdulgafar said the material evidence placed before the court has shown that the prosecution had proved its case beyond a reasonable doubt.

The judge pronounced Joshua guilty of the four counts and sentenced him to seven years imprisonment on each count, to run concurrently. The court also ordered the convict to restitute his victims.