A 38-year-old lecturer at the Kwara State College of Health Technology Offa, Adebisi Ademola, has been sent to jail over his involvement in romance scam.
A romance scam is a confidence trick involving feigning romantic intentions towards a victim, gaining their affection, and then using that goodwill to get the victim to send money to the scammer under false pretenses or to commit fraud against the victim.
On Friday, Justice Sikiru Oyinloye of Kwara State High Court sitting in Ilorin convicted Adebisi Ademola, to six months imprisonment over his involvement in love scam.
According to Vanguard, he was among 33 suspected internet fraudsters arrested on September 14, 2020 in Offa area of Kwara State.
His charge reads:
That you, Adebisi Ademola (a.k.a Dawn Ayero) sometime in September, 2020 or thereabout at Ilorin, Kwara State within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court attempted to commit an offence of cheating by personation by pretending and representing yourself to be a white lady called Dawn Ayero to one Donald Oakes who is purportedly in love with the said Donald Oakes as it is contained in your gmail account: dawnayero@gmail.com and thereby committed an offence contrary to and punishable under Section 95 of the Penal Code Laws of Northern State.
The defendant pleaded guilty to the charge when it was read to him.
Following his ‘guilty plea’, counsel to the EFCC, Andrew Akoja, invited to the witness box, one Olumide Olasode, an operative of the Commission to review the facts of the case. He narrated how intelligence report led to the arrest of the defendant on September 14, 2020 at Offa area of Kwara State.
Petition from concerned citizens of Offa, statement of the defendant and all the fraudulent messages printed out of his email were tendered and admitted in evidence by the Court.
Akoja, thereafter, urged the Court to convict the defendant based on his plea, the exhibits tendered and the evidence of the sole prosecution witness (PW1)
Consequently, Justice Oyinloye found Ademola guilty of the charge and accordingly sentenced him. He, however, gave him an option of fine of N50,000 (Fifty Thousand Naira).
The judge in addition, ordered the forfeiture of convict’s phone, used as instrument to perpetrate the crime, to the Federal Government.
