The Ilorin Zonal Command of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission has secured the conviction and sentencing of a 26-year-old forex trader, Kolawole Joshua, and two others, Abdullahi Isiak, and Daniel Orji, for offenses bordering on internet fraud.
This was revealed in a statement posted on the official X, formerly Twitter, handle of the EFCC on Saturday, November 4.
According to the statement, the trio were arrested by operatives of the Commission at three different locations in the state and jailed after pleading guilty to one-count separate charges bordering on internet fraud, consequent on their arraignment before Justice Mahmoud Abdulgafar of the Kwara State High Court in Ilorin.
The defendants pleaded guilty to their respective one-count charges when they were read to them.
The charge against Joshua read, “That you, Kolawole Joshua, sometime between April and May 2023, at Ilorin within the Judicial Division of the High Court, did cheat by personation, when you pretended to be one Mia Phillips via your Google Voice account: denissefranptonphm85@gmail.com and induced one Daniel Murphy, a.k.a. Wagba Wealth and Danny, to part with a gross sum of $400 through gift cards and thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 321 of the Penal Code and punishable under Section 324 of the Penal Code.”
Justice Abdulgafar, in his judgment, found the defendants guilty and convicted them as charged. He sentenced Joshua to six months imprisonment with an option of a fine of N500,000 and ordered that one iPhone 12 and the sum of $200, which are the proceeds of the crime, be forfeited to the federal government.
The court also sentenced Isiak to six months imprisonment, which is to be suspended, and ordered that the iPhone 12 Promax used as an instrument of crime be forfeited to the Federal Government.
Similarly, Orji was sentenced to six months of imprisonment with the option of a fine of N150,000, while an iPhone 6 and the sum of $250 recovered from him were forfeited to the Federal Government.
