Court Orders 21-Year-Old Internet
Fraudster To Sweep EFCC Premises For 2 Weeks.
By Onome Naomi
Samuel pleaded guilty to cheating
filed by the EFCC and begged the
court for leniency.
A court in Abuja has ordered an
internet fraudster to clean premises
of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) for two weeks.
The FCT High Court in Gwagwalada, FCT gave the order on Tuesday after finding 21-year-old student, Babatunde Samuel guilty. Samuel pleaded guilty to cheating filed by the EFCC and begged the court for leniency.
Delivering judgment, Justice Aliyu
Shafa, ordered Samuel to clean the
EFCC premises from 8 a.m to 10 a.m
for two weeks under supervision.
Justice Shafa also ordered Samuel to undergo counselling by EFCC legal
department for a period of one month.
Shafa, also ordered the convict to
enter a bond to be of good behaviour
for a period of two years from 21st
June 2022 to 21st June 2024.
Shafa ordered that the items (laptop
and cell phone) used to perpetuate
the crime be burnt. Shafa warned him to desist from committing crimes and be of good behaviour.
The convict in his allocutus pleaded
with the court to tamper justiceswith mercy, adding that he would not indulge in such act again. “I regret involving myself in internet fraud, I will never do it again I promise,” he said.
The Defence Counsel, Mr E. G. Inalegw, in support of the allocutus by the convict told the court that Samuel, who had no previous conviction record in Nigeria was remorseful and repentant. “Samuel is the first son of his aged mother who is currently hospitalised, he just finished his secondary education and gained admission into the university.
He moved down to Abuja to seek for
greener pastures but ended himself
into internet fraud,” Inalegw pleaded.
Inalegw pleaded with the court to
tamper justices with mercy, promising that the convict would not repeat such again.
Also, an amicus curiae, Sylvester
Ogbelu, pleaded with the court to
consider the age of the convict and
grant him non custodial sentence
especially with the condition of the
mother who was aged and currently
very sick in the hospital.
Read Also:Why nationwide fuel scarcity may linger on.
Earlier, the EFCC Counsel, Khalid
Sanusi told the court that Samuel alias Andy Wong through his Facebook sometimes in 2021 cheated by pretending to be a Chinese oil and gas engineer based in Italy.
Sanusi said Samuel, in that regard
tricked his victim by name Karen with
intent to obtain the sum of 10,000 dollars. The offence, he said, contravened the provisions of Section 321 of the Penal Code and punishable under Section 322.
