Travel agent jailed 4 years over N6.2m visa fraud

A Kaduna Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday sentenced a 39-year-old travel agent, Adebayo Oyeronke, to four years imprisonment over a N6.2 million visa fraud.

Oyeronke had pleaded guilty to the charges of fraud and theft.

Delivering judgment, Magistrate Ibrahim Emmanuel, held that Oyeronke was guilty of defrauding Rita Francis and four others of the sum of N6.2 million.

Emmanuel who did not give the convict an option of fine, ordered him to pay N2 million each as compensation to the victims.

The magistrate also ordered him to undertake an affidavit of good conduct, pledging never to engage in any criminal or corrupt activities again.

Earlier, the prosecution Insp. Chidi Leo told the court that the convict committed the offences between December 2024 and April 2025 at Barnawa Kaduna.

Leo said that the defendant collected N6.2 million from the complainants; Rita Francis, Mohammed Sadiq, Christian Baba, Williams Abiodun and Nathan Victor, with a promise to get them Polish visa.

He said after the convict collected the money, he absconded to an unknown destination until he was arrested on May 15.

The prosecutor said the offences contravened the Penal Code of Kaduna State, 2017.