Kwara court jails apprentice photographer, another for cybercrime

Justice Mahmud Abdulgafar of Kwara State High Court in Ilorin has sentenced a 26-year-old apprentice photographer, Amole Samuel Anuoluwapo and one Adeboye Abel Oluwapelumi to various jail terms, having found them guilty of offences bordering on cybercrime.

Anuoluwapo, who hails from Akinyele Local  Council of Oyo State, and Oluwapelumi, from Irepodun Local Council of Kwara State, are to spend their terms in custody of the Nigerian Correctional Centre, starting from May 4, 2023, when they were arrested in Ilorin.

They were nabbed upon intelligence on their fraudulent activities by operatives of the Ilorin Zonal Command of Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

The anti-graft agency had on Tuesday, June 13, 2023, arraigned the convicts on separate charges, to which they pleaded guilty.

Upon their “guilty pleas”, counsel to the EFCC, Anselm Ozioko (Jnr.), led witnesses who are operatives of the Commission in evidence to review the facts of their cases.

The witnesses narrated the circumstances surrounding the arrest of the defendants and tendered their extra-judicial statements, phones and a sum of N218,000, which Oluwapelumi benefited from the crime and were admitted in evidence by the court.

Thereafter, Ozioko prayed the court to hold that the prosecution had established the essential ingredients of the case to warrant the conviction of the defendants.

In his ruling, Justice Abdulgafar on Wednesday, June 14, 2023, held that the prosecution had proved its case beyond reasonable doubt and pronounced the defendants guilty of their respective charges.

The judge, who gave Anuoluwapo, a six months suspended sentence, also ordered that the iPhone 7 plus, which was recovered from him at the point of arrest be forfeited to the Federal Government.

Similarly, Oluwapelumi was handed a six months suspended sentence on count 1 and one year on count 2.

In addition, the court ordered that one iPhone 11 recovered from him at the point of arrest and the sum of N218,000, which he benefited from his criminal activities be forfeited to the Federal Government.