A Lagos High Court sitting in Ikeja, yesterday, sentenced an unemployed man, Lukman Ibrahim, to a year imprisonment for being in possession of fraudulent documents.
  
The trial judge, Olubusola Okunuga, sentenced Ibrahim to a year imprisonment after he pleaded guilty to the charge brought against him by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).He pleaded guilty to one-count amended charge that bordered on possession of fraudulent documents.
  
The prosecution said his offence was contrary to the provision of Section 320 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State 2011. The EFCC had alleged that Ibrahim on or about April 17, 2023, with intent to defraud, had in his possession several fraudulent documents, one of which is a record of his conversation with the fellow member of his syndicate, showing how he fraudulently harvested personal information of unsuspecting victims and sold for an agreed sum. He pleaded “guilty” to the charge read to him.
  
Following his plea, counsel to the EFCC, Alabi Abdulrasheed, told the court that the amended one-count charge was pursuant to the fact that the defendant approached the court for a plea bargain considering the weighty evidence that the prosecution had gathered against him.
  
The prosecutor therefore reviewed the facts filed before the court. Abdulrasheed told the court that the defendant was one of the suspects arrested by the operatives around Osapa London, Lekki, sometime in April 2023.
  
He said: “They were arrested following actionable intelligence of the activities of some people engaging in computer-related fraud, who are living a lavish lifestyle without verifiable means of livelihood.
  
“Upon his arrest, an iPhone 12, iPhone X, MacBook Air laptop, and Lexus RX 350 were recovered from him, which were purchased through the proceeds of his illegal online activities. Under interrogation, he confessed to his involvement in cybercrime, and admitted to have benefitted $12,000.”
  
He also tendered in evidence, the two statements made by the defendant on April 15 and 17, 2023, the items recovered from him alongside the vehicle documents of the Lexus RX 350, and the fraudulent documents printed out from his device.
  
The defendant’s counsel, I. S John, did not raise any objection to tendering of the documents and the judge admitted them as exhibits. Justice Okunuga therefore pronounced him guilty as charged and sentenced him to one year in prison.
  
The defendant’s counsel in his allocutus, pleaded with the court to consider the timely plea of the defendant, who did not waste the time of the court.
  
An ‘allocution’, or ‘allocutus’, according to Wikipedia online, ‘is a formal statement made to the court by the defendant who has been found guilty prior to being sentenced.  He also told the court that the convict was a first-time offender. 
  
In her ruling, the judge gave him an option of fine of N1 million, and ordered that items recovered from him be forfeited to the Federal Government.
  
The court also ordered him to sign an undertaking with the EFCC never to be involved in any economic and financial crimes within and outside the shores of Nigeria.