Lukman Olabiyi 

A 38-year- old visa applicant, Lukman Owolabi Ogunsuada, has been sentenced to jail for presenting forged letter of invitation to the officials at the United States Embassy in Lagos to secure B1 and B2 Visa categories knowing full well that the documents were not genuine.

The convict was jailed by Chief Magistrate N.A Layeni of the Lagos State Magistrates’ Court, Apapa.

Ogunsuada was found guilty of the two-count charge bordering on forgery, preferred against him by the special fraud unit (SFU) of the police.

Before the convict was finally convicted, his trial over the offence lasted three years.

Magistrate Layeni sentenced the convict in count one of the charge to one year imprisonment or alternatively to a fine of N100, 000 and 200 hours community service or to a fine of N20, 000 in count two of the charge.

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The court held that the sentence would run concurrently.

During the trial, the prosecuting counsel, Wewe Adegbayi had informed the court that the journey to jail started for the convict on October 11, 2017 when he went to submit a letter of invitation to the officials at the American embassy in Lagos to process B1 and B2 visa categories.

Adegbayi said that when the embassy officials scanned the documents, they discovered that it was forged and they held the convict and sent a distress call to the Commissioner of Police in charge of the SFU, Lagos about the development and the CP dispatched his team led by Lawal Audu to the embassy to arrest the convict.

He said that during investigation, the convict confessed to the crime and said that he used his phone to edit original letter of invitation and inserted his name and submitted it to the embassy officials thinking that they would not be able to detect that the letter of invitation was forged.

Adegbayi said the offence, the convict committed were punishable under sections 365 and 366 of the Criminal Laws of Lagos State, 2015.