The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has secured the conviction of a 26-year-old forex trader, Kolawole Temidayo Joshua, and two others for offences bordering on internet fraud.
The convicts, Kolawole Temidayo Joshua, Abdullahi Isiak, and Daniel Roland Orji, were arraigned on separate charges of one count each before Justice Mahmoud Abdulgafar of the Kwara State High Court sitting in Ilorin.
Joshua was accused of impersonating one Mia Phillips via his Google Voice account and inducing one Daniel Murphy, a.k.a. Wagba Wealth and Danny to part with the sum of $400 through gift cards.
“That you, Kolawole Temidayo 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 vide your Google Voice account: [email protected] and induced one Daniel Murphy a.k.a Wagba Wealth and Danny, to part with 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.” Joshua’s charge reads.
They pleaded guilty to their respective charges before the court adjourned.
At the resumed hearing on Wednesday, October 11, EFCC counsels Muinat Bello and Isabel Adeniran, while reviewing the facts of the cases, tendered exhibits including phones, extrajudicial statements and money that they brought as restitutions by the defendants, which were admitted in evidence.
Justice Abdulgafar thereafter convicted and sentenced them. Joshua was sentenced to six months imprisonment with an option of a fine of N500,000 and ordered that one iPhone 12 and the sum of $200 be forfeited to the federal government.
The court also sentenced Isiak to six months imprisonment, which is to be suspended and ordered that his iPhone 12 Promax used as an instrument of crime be forfeited to the Federal Government.
Equally, Justice Abdulgafar sentenced Orji to six months imprisonment with the option of a fine of N150,000, while his iPhone 6 and the sum of $250 were forfeited to the Federal Government.
The convicts made their way into the correctional centre when they were arrested by operatives of the Ilorin Zonal Command of the EFCC for internet-related offences.
