The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Ilorin zonal office yesterday secured the conviction of Stephen Olarewaju Odanye (35) charged before a Kwara State High Court in Ilorin, Kwara State.
Odanye had on Wednesday pleaded guilty to the one-count charge preferred against him by the EFCC.
The charge reads: “That you, Stephen Olarewaju Odanye (aka Raymond Sullivan) sometime in September 2019 or thereabout at Ilorin, Kwara State within the jurisdiction of this honourable court attempted to commit an offence of cheating by pretending and presenting yourself to Lynn Smith, to be a white man, supplier of engineering and construction equipment, living in Washington as it is contained in your email gmail account: HYPERLINK “mailto:[email protected]”[email protected] and thereby committed an offence contrary to section 95 and 321 of the penal code law and punishable under section 322 of the same act”
Giving his judgment yesterday, Justice Abdulgafar said the prosecution was able to prove its case beyond reasonable doubt as the evidence of the sole witness was not challenged.
“I found you Stephen Olarewaju Odanye guilty of one-count charge of attempt to cheat by impersonation and hereby sentenced you to a six month imprisonment without an option of fine.”
Abdulgafar further directed that the convict’s laptop and mobile phones should be forfeited to the Federal Government of Nigeria.