He got married in December, now jailed for defrauding foreigners through internet

A man who got married last year December was on Wednesday, jailed for defrauding some foreigners through the internet in what is popularly called Yahoo Yahoo.

The man, Azeez Bamidele, was sentenced to six months in prison by an Ikeja Special Offences Court in Lagos State presided over by Justice Mojisola Dada.

He was sentenced after he had pleaded guilty to a charge of possession of fraudulent documents used to defraud foreigners preffered against him by the anti-graft agency.

The EFCC prosecutor, Mr Idris Mohammed, said the commission received intelligence report on a case of cyber crime, obtaining money by false pretence and stealing in the Ikorodu area of Lagos.

He said that on March 7, a raid was conducted by operatives of the anti-graft agency and Bamidele and some other people were arrested.

“He was arrested with a Samsung mobile phone which was analysed as part of the investigation. The defendant operates three different email accounts and fraudulent documents were printed from his email.

“He was confronted with our findings and he admitted committing the crimes and his statement and documents printed from his email addresses are all attached to the information which were tendered as evidence before the court,” the prosecutor said.

Delivering judgment during the proceeding, the judge said: “The defendant, having pleaded guilty is convicted as charged. He is hereby sentenced to six months imprisonment starting from March 18, 2020 when he was first remanded by this court.

“The defendant shall upon his release from custody do a written undertaking to the Federal Government of Nigeria through the EFCC to be of good behaviour and not to be engaged in any criminal activities within or outside the shores of this country.”

The defence counsel, Mr Babatunde Hamzat, in his allocutus (plea for mercy), had earlier asked the court to temper justice with mercy based on the convict’s status as a newly-married man.

“The defendant having pleaded guilty to the charge, I plead with the court to temper justice with mercy. He is a young man who just got married in December last year.

“He was influenced by peer pressure and having been in custody since March this year, he has shown remorse and he is now penitent.

“We plead with the court to give him a fine, or if possible, community service. He is a young man with a lot to offer and he has shown remorse and turned a new leaf,” Hamzat said.

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