Court sentences man to 21 years imprisonment over N36m oil fraud

A Special Offences Court sitting in Ikeja, Lagos State capital has sentenced one Adesanya Olufemi to 21 years imprisonment over fake crude oil deal worth N36 million. 

This was disclosed in a statement sent to The ICIR on Monday by Dele Oyewale, the Spokesperson for the Economic Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

Oyewale said the convict was arraigned by the Commission’s Zonal office in Lagos  alongside one Awojobi Ganiu, on December 11, 2018, on four-count charges bordering on stealing and obtaining money by false pretence to the tune of N33, 617.000.

According to the statement, the victim of the fake deal, Oluwatoyin Akinwole, had petitioned the Commission stating that the defendants, claimed to be into the crude oil business, approached her to join them in the business sometime in 2017.

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

EFCC wrote that upon arraignment, Ganiu pleaded guilty to the charges and opted for a ‘bargain deal’ leaving him out of the suit.

Oyewole stated that one of the charges read, “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, the property of Mrs Oluwatoyin Akinwole, on the representation that you are into the crude oil business, which representation you knew was false.”

He said that Akinwole pleaded not guilty to the charges as read to him by the prosecution counsel.

“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,” the statement read.

Delivering the judgment, Justice Mojisola 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.

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However, Oyewale noted that Olufemi was discharged on count three while the other sentences would run concurrently from the date of his arraignment.