AN Ikeja High Court, Lagos, on
Monday sentenced a middle-aged man, Olaolu Salau, to 168 years’ imprisonment
with hard labour for defrauding a Lagos-based businessman, Solomon Ayoola, of
N2. 5 million.
Trial judge, Adeniyi
Onigbanjo, handed the verdict following a plea-bargain arrangement between the
convict and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
The judge, while sentencing
Salau after he pleaded guilty to an amended 24-count charge preferred against
him by the anti-graft agency, ordered that the convict serve seven years’ each
to the 24-count at Kirikiri Prison, Lagos.
In his judgment, Justice
Onigbanjo, who read through the plea bargain agreement filed in line with the
Lagos State Criminal Justice Procedure Law 2011, however, ordered that the
sentence runs concurrently starting from December 11, 2007, being the date he
was arrested by the EFCC.
The convict was also to pay
a restitution of N2.5 million to the victim, who has already paid the sum of
N400,000 to the EFCC.
He was to pay the money
within a year from his release from prison.
The convict, the court
ordered, was also to be used as a prosecution witness against the remaining
defendants.
Salau was arraigned with
four others on allegation of conspiracy and defrauding one Solomon Ayoola at
different times to the tune of N2.5 million by claiming to be capable of
increasing the said amount through the invocation of invisible entity.
According to the charge
dated May 6 and filed on May 7, 2013, by the EFCC, the convict was charged with
conspiring with four others with intent to defraud the businessman between June
and November 2006 of various sums of money.
The offence, the anti-graft
agency said, contravened Section 419 of Advance-Fee-Fraud and Miscellaneous
Offences.
According to the
prosecution, the Commission had in September 2007, received a petition by one
Ayoola alleging the case of fraud of obtaining money by false pretence.
The prosecution said
investigation by the Commission revealed a fraud totalling N2.5m at various
times between June and November 2006.
This, the prosecution said,
necessitated the filing of a 24-count charge, one on conspiracy and 23 others
bordering on advance-fee-fraud and obtaining money by false pretence.
The defence’s statement was
also admitted as exhibits by former trial judge, Justice Habeeb Abiru.
But during the course of
trial, the convict, who has been in custody for seven years, wrote to the EFCC
for a plea-bargain arrangement, which necessitated his plea of guilt.
Meanwhile, other three
defendants: Akinsowon Olufemi, Adebisi Adewale, Muyiwa Ayeni arraigned with the
convict, had maintained their plea of innocence and were remanded in Kirikiri
Prison custody till July 22 for trial.
Source: Guardian
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