Court sentences Islamic cleric two years in prison for N71m oil fraud

The Special Offences Court sitting in Ikeja, Lagos, has sentenced an Islamic cleric, Awojobi Ganiu, to two years in prison for an N71m oil fraud after he pleaded guilty to the amended charge following a plea bargain initiated by himself.

Mr Wilson Uwujaren, the Head of Media and Publicity, Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), disclosed in a statement on Thursday that the Lagos Zonal office secured the conviction and sentencing of the Islamic cleric on Wednesday, October 2, 2019.

According to the statement, the convict was arraigned before Justice Mojisola Dada alongside his co-defendant, Adesanya Olufemi Paul, on Tuesday, December 11, 2018, on a four-count charge bordering on stealing and obtaining money by false pretence to the tune of N71million from the complainant, Oluwatoyin Akinwole.

Akinwole alleged that, sometime in 2017, the defendants who claimed to be into the crude oil business, approached her to join them in the business.

Akinwole also alleged that she paid the defendants some amounts of money for the supply of crude oil.

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She further alleged that the defendants neither repaid her nor supplied the crude oil.

One of the counts reads: “That you, Adesanya Olufemi and Awojobi Ganiu, sometime in 2017, at Lagos, within the Ikeja Judicial Division, with intent to defraud, fraudulently obtained the sum of N33, 617.000 (Thirty-Three Million, Six Hundred and Seventeen Thousand Naira) by false pretence, property of Mrs Oluwatoyin Akinwole, on the representation that you are into crude oil business from which representation you knew was false.”

The defendants pleaded not guilty to the charges preferred against them, thereby setting the stage for their full trial.

In the course of the trial, the prosecution counsel, Samuel Daji, called five witnesses and tendered several documents that were admitted as evidence by the court.

The first defendant, Paul, testified for himself, while the second defendant, Ganiu, approached the commission for a plea bargain through a letter dated March 11, 2019. Consequently, the charge relating to the second defendant, Ganiu, as amended.

During Wednesday’s proceedings, the second defendant, Ganiu, pleaded guilty to the amended charge.

In view of his guilty plea, the prosecution counsel, Daji, reviewed the facts of the case, wherein he told the court that the second defendant, before the conclusion of the plea bargain agreement, had used part of the proceeds of the crime to acquire a piece of land at Adenolu Family Land in Ijebu Ode, Ogun State.

Delivering her judgment, Justice Dada convicted and sentenced the second defendant to two years imprisonment from the date of arraignment.

Justice Dada also ordered that the property, which the convict acquired with the proceeds of crime be transferred to the nominal complainant, Akinwole.