Cybercrime: Kwara Court sentences student to 1 year in prison

A Kwara High court sitting in Ilorin on Thursday sentenced one Olaleye Rosheed, a student of the Federal Polytechnic, Offa, to one year at a correctional centre over offences bordering on attempted cheating and internet fraud.

The Ilorin Zonal Command of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) secured the conviction.

The presiding Judge, Justice Sikiru Oyinloye found the defendant guilty of the offence, following his plea bargain.

The judge in passing the sentence said he had carefully considered the facts and circumstances of the case, most especially the lone count charge and the plea of guilt entered by the defendant.

Oyinloye said he had equally looked at the defendant’s extra-judicial statements and unchallenged testimonies of the sole prosecution witness, before taking his decision.

He said that the court held the view that the prosecution had succeeded in proving its case beyond reasonable doubt and found the defendant guilty of the allegation levelled against him.

Oyinloye sentenced the convict to one year imprisonment with an option of N200,000 fine, adding that the iPhone recovered from the defendant should be forfeited to the Federal Government.

Olaleye, 21, was prosecuted on one count charge, which read:

“That you, Olaleye Rosheed (Christiana Lopez) sometime in January, pretended to be one Christiana Lopez, a white female with a gmail account [email protected]

“You thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 95 of the penal code and punishable under section 324 of the same law.”

The defendant pleaded guilty when the charge was read to him.

Following his plea, counsel to the EFCC, Sesan Ola, reviewed the facts of the case through an operative of the EFCC, before the defendant was eventually sentenced by the court.