- Safiu Kehinde
At least five suspected internet fraudsters have been convicted and sentenced to different jail terms by the Federal High Court in Ilorin and the Kwara State High Court.
As disclosed in a statement issued on Monday by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), the convicted persons include Ayinla Abiodun Abdulmajid, Yusuf Abdulazeez Onimisi, Muhammed Zayad Eneye, Abdulbasit Abdulmumeen, and Victor Onucheyo Anibe.
They were arraigned on separate charges by the Ilorin Zonal Directorate of the EFCC.
While Abdulmajid, Onimisi and Eneye were jailed by Justice Abimbola Awogboro of the Federal High Court in Ilorin, Abdulmumeen and Anibe were jailed by Justices Sulaiman Akanbi and Haleema Saleeman of the Kwara State High Court.
The charges against one of the convict, Abdulmajid, reads: “That you, AYINLA ABIODUN ABDULMAJID (Alias: Micheal Cavezza) sometime between March and May, 2025 within the Judicial Division of the Federal High Court, did fraudulently impersonate one Michael Cavezza vide your google hangout account with the intent to obtain from one Kirsty Reid and did obtain the gross sum of $1,003 (One Thousand, Three USD) thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 22 (2)(b)(ii) of the Cybercrime (Prohibition & Prevention ) Act 2015 and punishable under section 22 (2)(b)(IV) of the same Act”.
The defendants pleaded guilty when the charges were read to them.
Based on their pleas, prosecution counsel, Innocent Mbachie, Sesan Ola and Mustapha Kaigama reviewed the facts of the cases by calling witnesses through whom they tendered the extra-judicial statements of the defendants as well as items recovered from them at the point of arrest.
The lawyers urged the court to convict the defendants accordingly.
In his judgment, Justice Awogboro sentenced Abdulmajid to nine months imprisonment without an option of fine.
The judge also ordered the forfeiture of the sum of $702 which he benefited from the unlawful activities and one iphone 14 pro max, Redmi phone and one HP the laptop to the Federal Government.
Justice Awogboro however sentenced Onimisi to three months imprisonment without an option of fine.
The Judge ordered that the sum of $300 he benefited from his criminal conduct and one Samsung S31 be forfeited to the Federal Government.
In the same vein, the court sentenced Muhammed to 400 hours community service without an option of fine and ordered the forfeiture of the convict’s HP laptop.
On his part, Justice Akanbi sentenced Abdulmumeen to two years imprisonment or an option of N400,000.
Additionally, the convict was ordered to sweep the premises of the Kwara State High Court for two months to be supervised by the Nigeria Correctional Service Probationer Officer, while the sum of $145 and one iphone 11 he benefited from the criminal conduct were forfeited to the Federal Government.
Similarly, Justice Saleeman sentenced Anibe to two years imprisonment or an option of fine N600,000.
The court ordered that the sum of N4 million he restituted, one iphone 16 promax and a Samsung phone be forfeited to the Federal Government.
All the convicts bagged their imprisonment when they were arrested for internet-related offences.