Kwara High Court Jails Teenager For 12 months Over Internet Fraud
Justice Adebayo Yusuf of the Kwara State High Court sitting in Ilorin on Friday convicted and sentenced a 19-year-old man, identified as Marvelous Awolowo, popularly known as Bryan Evan and Sandra Kate to 12 months imprisonment over cybercrime.
The Ilorin Zonal Command of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission had arraigned Marvelous on a two-count charge.
One of the counts read, “That you, Marvelous Awolowo sometime between May 2022 and October 2022 in Ilorin, Kwara State within the jurisdiction of this honorable court knowingly had under your control N13,713,400 paid into your United Bank for Africa account No 2176465739 which is reasonably suspected to be unlawfully obtained and thereby committed an offense contrary to Section 319(A) of the Penal Code Law and punishable under the same Section.”
He pleaded guilty to the charges which were read to him in court.
The EFCC, in a statement signed by Head of Media and Publicity, Wilson Uwajuren, said that following the guilty plea, counsel to the EFCC, Rashidat Alao, reviewed the facts of the case through a witness, Kamal Yahayah, who narrated the circumstances leading to the arrest of the defendant.
Kamal, who is an operative of the EFCC, tendered documents, which were admitted in evidence by the court.
Marvelous, who hails from Kabba/Bunu Local Government Area of Kogi State, was arrested on October 23, 2022, at the International Airport, Ilorin, Kwara State.
Upon arrest, one Infinix S5 Lite phone was recovered from him. The phone was analyzed and several fraudulent documents were printed from his emails.
The defense counsel, Antonia Erinfolami-Daniel, in her allocutus, pleaded with the court to tamper justice with mercy considering the age of the convict as a teenager and one with a promising future.
Justice Yusuf sentenced Marvelous to six months imprisonment on each of the two counts, to run concurrently with N100,000 as an option of fine on each count.
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