Court jails woman three years for N14.5m fraud in Lagos

Justice O.A. Okunuga of the Lagos State High Court sitting in Ikeja, Lagos has sentenced a woman, Ajanaku Oluwatomilola, to three years imprisonment for N14.5m fraud in Lagos. 

The offender was re-arraigned by operatives of the Lagos Zonal Directorate 2 of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on April 14, 2024, on a six-count charge surrounding  “stealing, obtaining money and property by false pretence and retention to the tune of N14.5m.”

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This was disclosed by the operatives in a statement on their social media account on X (formerly Twitter).

According to the statement, in 2021, the defendant received the sum of N14.5m as investment capital from some petitioners with an agreement for returns over three months. However, Oluwatomilola went back on the agreement by refusing to pay “the agreed return on investment to the petitioners after two months. 

As disclosed by investigations, the defendant wasn’t licensed to “conduct capital market operations or call for investments from the members of the public.”

Following one of the six-count charges, the defendant pleaded “not guilty” to the charge read against which led to her trial on N14.5m fraud in Lagos.

The count reads: “That you, Ajanaku Oluwatomilola, trading under the name and style of Yenniegoldie Signature, sometime in 2021 in Lagos, within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court, with intent to defraud, stole and dishonestly converted to your own, the sum of N5,000,000 (Five Million Naira), property of one Truetalk Telecom Services, thereby  committed an offence of stealing, contrary to Section 280 and punishable under Section 287 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2015.”

The anti-graft agency stated that the prosecution counsel, F. Ofoma, called “four witnesses, including Christopher Ameh, an investigative officer with the EFCC, and the petitioners.”

The defence counsel, O. Ajanaku, pleaded for leniency, saying “the convict is a first-time offender and he is remorseful.” He told the court that under his watch, restitution would be paid to the nominal petitioners. 

 EFCC added, “Delivering judgment, Justice Okunuga found the defendant guilty on three counts of stealing and sentenced her to one year imprisonment on each of the counts.

“She was, however, discharged of the counts of obtaining money and property by false pretence and retention.”

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