A Kwara State High Court sitting in Ilorin has sentenced a lecturer at Kwara State College of Health Technology (Health Tech) Offa, Abdullahi Opashola, and a twin-brothers, Taiye and Kehinde Adebayo to one-year imprisonment over offences bordering on personation and internet fraud.
The convicts were arraigned before the court presided over by Justice Adenike Akinpelu on a separate count charge on impersonation by the Ilorin Zonal Office of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
The count charge preferred against them reads: “That you, Opashola Abdullahi, (alias Devin Snow), sometime in the month of August 2020 in Ilorin, within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court, did attempt to cheat by personation, by portraying yourself as a female named Devine Snow via your email address [email protected] to one Eugene Myvett in order to induce him to send you $200 USD, a representation you knew to be false. and thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 95 of the Penal Code and punishable under Section 324 of the same Law”
“That you, Taiye Adebayo, sometime in January 2020, at Ilorin, within the judicial division of the Kwara State High Court, did cheat one Gary Brenton who you met on TWOO dating site, of the sum of $490 (Four Hundred and Ninety Dollars) received vide gift cards when you pretended to be female. and thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 320 of the Penal Code and punishable under Section 322 of the same Penal Code.
“That you, Kehinde Adebayo, sometime in January 2020 at Ilorin, within the judicial division of the Kwara State High Court, did cheat one Gary Brenton who you met on TWOO dating site, of the sum of $410 (Four Hundred and Ten Dollars) received vide gift cards when you pretended to be female. and thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 320 of the Penal Code and punishable under Section 322 of the same Penal Code.”
In his judgment on Thursday, Justice Akinpelu found the defendants guilty and sentenced Opashola to four months imprisonment with an option fine of N150,000.
Aside from Opashola, Taiye and Kehinde were also sentenced to six months imprisonment on each of the counts against them, with an option fine of N50,000 on each of the counts.
The judge further ordered that the convicts forfeit laptops and phones used to commit the crimes to the Federal Government, adding that the sentences would serve as a deterrent to others.
