A 29-year-old fraudster, Usman Muhammed, was on Wednesday given a N50,000 fine option or risk six months jail term for pretending to be a woman and defrauding unsuspecting male admirers on social media.
The verdict was handed down by Justice Sikiru Oyinloye of the Kwara State High Court after the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) arraigned Muhammed on a one-count charge of impersonation.
The charge read, “That you, Usman Muhammed (a.k.a Adepeju Omolara and Guns Omolara Valle), sometime in February, 2020 or thereabout at Ilorin, Kwara State, within the jurisdiction of his honourable court, attempted to commit an offence of cheating by impersonation by pretending and representing yourself to be a woman called Omolara Adepeju and Guns Omolara Valle, to unsuspecting men on social media as it contained in both your Facebook and WhatsApp conversations on your phone and thereby committed an offence contrary to and punishable under Section 95 of the Penal Code Laws of Northern Nigeria.”
Muhammed pleaded guilty to the charge, prompting Adenike Ayoku, an operative of the EFCC, to review the facts of the case.
Ayoku stated that the accused person, who was arrested in his residence in Abeokuta, Ogun State, was an internet fraudster who pretended to be female and used female nude photographs to fraudulently obtain money from unsuspecting internet users as evidenced in his Facebook and WhatsApp accounts.
Delivering judgment, Justice Oyinloye noted that the prosecution proved its case beyond reasonable doubt and the evidence was neither challenged nor contradicted by the defendant. He therefore ordered the convict to pay a fine of N50,000 within 24 hours or be committed to six months imprisonment.
The convict also forfeited two phones which were the tools of his crime to the Federal Government.