A Kwara State High Court on Tuesday convicted a young man, Agwu Goodness, for involvement in internet fraud and other fraud related matters, popularly known as ‘Yahoo Yahoo’.
Justice Sikiru Oyinloye convicted and sentenced the defendant to six months imprisonment after pleading guilty to the one count charge levelled against him by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
The charge against the accused person read: “That you, Agwu Goodness ( a.k.a Shemmy Barnes), sometime in October 2019 or thereabout at Ilorin, Kwara State within the jurisdiction of this honourable Court attempted to commit an offence of cheating by pretending to be one Shemmy Barnes, a white woman, who is purportedly in love with one Theo, as it is contained in your gmail account: shemmybarnes0@gmail.com and thereby committed an offence contrary to section 95 and 321 of the penal code law and punishable under section 322 of the same law.”
EFCC Counsel, A.A Adebayo, called on one Lamidi Olarewaju, an operative of the Commission, to review the facts of the case.
Giving evidence before Justice Oyinloye, Olarewaju said, ” My Lord, the defendant was arrested sometime in the month of October 2019 when the EFCC received an intelligence report about the activities of some internet fraudsters in Basin Area of Ilorin. On getting to our office, we analysed his phone, and the team discovered that he sent fraudulent messages.”
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During sentencing, Justice Oyinloye said the evidence of the prosecution witness was not challenged or controverted by the defendant.
He therefore sentenced Goodness according, ruling that the sentence commenced from the day of his arrest sometime in October 2019.
According to the Judge, the convict is to forfeit his iPhone 6 which was reportedly used to commit the crime to the Federal Government.