Fake crude oil merchant gets 21 years in Lagos

Justice Mojisola Dada of the Special Offences Court, sitting in Ikeja, Lagos has convicted and sentenced a fake crude oil merchant, Adesanya Olufemi, to twenty-one year imprisonment, for defrauding a lady, Oluwatoyin Akinwole, the sum of N33,617,000.

The convict was arraigned by the Lagos zonal office of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, alongside one Awojobi Ganiu, on December 11, 2018 on four-count charges bordering on stealing and obtaining over N33 million by false pretence.

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

However, the defendants, after receiving money from her, reneged on the agreement mutually made by them.

One of the counts read: “That you, Adesanya Olufemi and Awojobi Ganiu sometime in 2017 in Lagos, within the Ikeja Judicial Division, with intent to defraud, fraudulently obtained the sum of N33,617,000 by false pretence, property of Mrs Oluwatoyin Akinwole, on the representation that you are into crude oil business, which representation you knew was false”.

The defendants pleaded not guilty to the charges when they were read to them, thereby leading to their full trial.

However, the trial eventually involved Olufemi alone, as the second defendant, Ganiu opted for a plea bargain by pleading guilty to the charges.

During the course of the trial of Olufemi, prosecution counsel, Daji Samuel, presented five witnesses, including Akinwole, also known as Toyin Texas, and also tendered several documents that were admitted in evidence by the court.

Delivering her judgment, Justice Dada convicted and sentenced Olufemi to 14 years imprisonment on count one and another 14 years on count two. He was also convicted and sentenced to seven years imprisonment on count four.

He, was however, discharged on count three. The sentences run concurrently from the date of his arraignment.