Olaleye Rosheed, a 21-year-old student of Federal Polytechnic, Offa, Kwara State, was on Thursday September 2, 2021 sentenced to twelve months in prison for cheating and internet fraud.
Justice Sikiru Onyinloye passed the judgment on him at the Kwara State High Court, Ilorin.
He was prosecuted on one-count charge by the Ilorin Zonal Command of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC.
The charge sheet read “That you, Olaleye Rosheed (Christiana Lopez) sometime in January,2021 at Ilorin within the jurisdiction of this honourable court, pretended to be one Christiana Lopez, a white female with a gmail account christianalopez 105@gmail.com and thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 95 of the Penal Code and punishable under Section 324 of the same Penal code.”
And in response to the charge, the defendant pleaded guilty.
Anti-graft agency, Sesan Ola reviewed the facts of the case following his plea, the Counsel through an operative of the commission, narrated how intelligence led to the arrest of the defendant in July 24,2021.
Several fraudulent messages was printed from Olaleye’s email, alongside an iPhone which were all recovered from him at the point of the arrest, and items presented to the court as evidence.
Delivering judgement,Justice Oyinloye said “I have carefully considered the facts and circumstances of this case, especially the lone count charge, the plea of guilt entered by the defendant, his extra-judicial statements and unchallenged testimonies of the prosecution witness.
“This honorable court holds the view that the prosecution has succeeded in proving its case beyond reasonable doubt.”
“This court finds the defendant guilty of the allegation levelled against him and he is hereby convicted,” the trial judge declared.
After listening to the plea made by the defence counsel, Justice Oyinloye sentenced Olaleye to one year imprisonment with an option of N200,000 fine.
