Man bags two weeks jail term in Ilorin for making calls in courtroom

A Kwara High Court in Ilorin on Tuesday sentenced a man, Abdulwahab Adebayo, to two weeks in a correctional facility for receiving phone calls during court proceedings.

Justice Sikiru Oyinloye found Adebayo guilty of disturbing the court proceedings with his phone conversations.

Oyinloye said the convict distracted the court and when he was summoned by the police officer attached to the court to stop disturbing the court, he refused.

“The convict refused to stop disturbing the court until another policeman dragged him off the court. He also exhibited a rude attitude in court, as he shouted and claimed to be innocent. The court premises is not a commercial call centre where anybody can receive or make calls as they wish.

“People commit contempt of court with negligence. Ignorance of the law is an offence, I hereby sentence you to two weeks imprisonment, without an option of fine,” Oyinloye ruled.

Adebayo had pleaded for mercy. “I wanted to collect money for my sick mother from my brother and could not meet him before getting to court premises, I had to make the call out of frustration,” he said.

Meanwhile, a man from Nigerian living in Britain, Oluwaseun Ajayi and a woman said to be his lover, Inga Irbe, were on Friday, January 10, jailed following an investigation by the Met’s Central Specialist Crime – Cyber Crime Unit.

According to TWnews, appearing at Croydon Crown Court, Ajayi, 39 and Irbe, 49 both of Orchard Road, Dagenham, were sentenced to five years and six months and a community order of 12 months and 170 hours unpaid work respectively. They were found guilty by a jury at the same court on November 27, 2019, of two counts of conspiracy to defraud and two counts of conspiracy to commit fraud by false representation between February I, 2012 and May 14, 2018.

In addition, Ajayi was also found guilty with failure to comply with a Section 49 RIPA notice (to disclose the PIN code to his phone). The court heard that between February 1, 2012, and May 14, 2018, both suspects compromised more than 700 bank accounts and mobile phone accounts and placed orders for upgraded phones on the victim’s mobile phone accounts.

It is believed that the mobile phone upgrade fraud exceeded £12,000. The suspects also applied for bank accounts, loans and credit cards in customer names without their knowledge. On November 22, 2016, officers executed a search where they subsequently arrested Ajayi and Irbe for Fraud by False Representation.

A search of the room they were living in was conducted and various items were seized including mobile phones, iPad, laptop, a computer and a financial document. Both were arrested and bailed pending further enquiries. On September 7, 2018, at 8.00 a.m., while the pair awaited a trial for the above offences, police executed a second search warrant. When officers knocked on the front door of the address, there was a delay in anybody answering the front door. Officers saw Ajayi at an upstairs window in one of the bedrooms, while Irbe was downstairs. After a couple of minutes, police warned they would force entry to the address. They eventually allowed officers access to the property.