Justice Abimbola Awogboro of the Federal High Court sitting in Ilorin, Kwara State, has sentenced a 27-year-old fashion designer, Haruna Musa Tolani, to 12 months’ imprisonment for impersonating and defrauding Callitus Egwuonwu, an investigating officer with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, Ilorin Zonal Directorate.

Tolani, an indigene of Ilorin East Local Government Area of Kwara State, was initially arraigned on a two-count charge bordering on impersonation and cybercrime on January 28, 2025, and pleaded not guilty, but later changed his plea to guilty after overwhelming evidence was presented by counsel to the EFCC, Sesan Ola.

Count one of the charge reads:”That you, Haruna Musa Tolani, in August 2024 at Ilorin within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court, with intent to defraud, misrepresented yourself via electronic message sent through unstructured supplementary service data (USSD) to Access Bank Plc. with respect to account number 0022643389, property of Mr. Callistus Egwuonwu, with which you purchased N20,000.00 (Twenty Thousand Naira) worth of MTN data, which resulted in loss to the owner of the account, and you thereby commit an offence contrary to and punishable under Section 14(2) of the Cybercrime (Prohibition and Prevention) Act, 2015.”

Similarly, count two reads:”That you, Haruna Musa Tolani, sometime in August 2024 at Ilorin within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court, fraudulently impersonated one Callistus Egwuonwu via electronic message sent through unstructured supplementary service data (USSD) to Access Bank Plc. with respect to account number 0022643389, property of Callistus Egwuonwu, with intention to purchase MTN data worth Twenty Thousand Naira (20,000.00), which you did purchase and thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 22(2)(b)(ii) of the Cybercrime (Prohibition and Prevention) Act, 2015, and punishable under Section 22(2)(b)(iv) of the same Act.”

In his judgment, Justice Awogboro imposed a 12-month custodial sentence on Tolani with an option of a fine of N200,000 (Two Hundred Thousand Naira). The court also ordered the forfeiture of a First Bank manager’s cheque of N200,000 in favour of the victim and directed the convict to restitute the sum of N20,000, the amount he fraudulently obtained.

Tolani bagged his imprisonment when he was arrested for internet fraud. He was charged to court, pleaded guilty, and convicted.