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Tag: jailed

  • Nigerian posing as MP, judge, jailed in UK over £10m benefits scam

    Nigerian posing as MP, judge, jailed in UK over £10m benefits scam

    Nigerian illegal immigrant in the United Kingdom (UK) is to spend the next five years in jail after a court found him guilty of leading  a gang which used the identities of members of parliament, judges and police officers to swindle the  taxpayer out of millions of pounds.

    Kayode Sanni, 38, was jailed for  five years and three months for his role  in the scam,according to The Daily Mail.

    The gang  stole personal details from the Civil Service Sports Council (CSSC), which provides sport and fitness facilities to more than 120,000 public sector employees and pensioners.

    The personal details were  deployed in  placing  orders for tax credit starter packs used in fraudulent claims over a four year period.

    Adedamola Oyebode, 30, who worked as CSSC events manager, stole the details which he then  handed over to  her brothers-in-law Oluwatobe Emmanuel Odeyemi, 34, and Oluwagbenga Stephen Odeyemi, 39.

    The Odeyemi brothers,the Old Bailey heard, ran  the fraud with Sanni.

    The gang was on course to reaping £10,260,525 only for Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs to uncover  the ‘extraordinarily high rate’ of claims being made by civil servants.

    The jurors said Sanni “lied through his teeth” after he claimed that his “conscience is clear” and denied involvement in the scam.

    The fraud was perpetrated t between 10 March 2009 and 11 June 2013. Emmanuel Odeyemi, Chantelle Gumbs and Adedamole Oyebode had earlier pleaded guilty to fraud charges. Odeyemi was sentenced to a prison term of three and a half years; Gumbs , a 15- month sentence suspended for two years; and Oyebode , a two-year sentence suspended for two years. Judge Paul Dodgson described the offence as a serious fraud . Sanni expressed remorse for the scam in a letter following his conviction but Dodgson was not impressed. He said:”I think he is remorseful that he got caught.

    “I’m sorry, I just can’t regard that as sincere. “I can’t see how someone who contested the matter, who in the jury’s judgement, and in mine as well, just blatantly lied throughout and then claimed to be remorseful.’ Oyebode, who worked for the CSSC between August 2008 and August 2010, admitted supplying lists of members and their details in return for payment. She also made calls to the tax credit helpline to obtain application packs.

    Further investigation revealed the fraudsters had used the details to create false identities, buy online insurance and open false bank accounts to receive the cash. The profits of the scam were then transferred out into either their own accounts or through Western Union facilities set up by Sanni and Emmanuel Odeyemi. Jurors were told that two of the gang, Stephen Odeyemi and his wife Oluwatumininu Banjo, 40, had fled to Nigeria and are wanted abroad.

  • Three jailed 12 months for illegal firearms possession

    An Egor Magistrates’ Court in Benin City, Edo State, has sentenced three persons to 12 months imprisonment each for possession of illegal firearms.

    The convicts, Ayo Olatunji, Isaiah Idanedanegbe and Ugbo Ogie, were found guilty on a charge of illegal possession of firearms.

    The Chief Magistrate, Mrs. Igho Braimah, who delivered the judgment, however, gave them an option of fine of N50, 000 each.

    She said while the prison term would run concurrently, the fine option of N50, 000 would be cumulative.

    Braimah ordered that the firearms be forfeited to the government and handed over to the police.

    Before the judgment, counsel to Idanedaegbe, Mr. I.B. Omoifo, asked the magistrate to be lenient with his client, who was a first offender.

    He noted that being a young man with potential and having been of good behaviour through the trial, his client should be cautioned and discharged.

    “He is a young man who has been of good behaviour through this trial. I urge the court to consider this. It is only human to err.

    “I am also urging this court to consider the fact that this young man has no previous criminal record. I plead passionately for the second accused to be cautioned and discharged,” Omoifo said.

    The judgment brings to an end, the case of the three men, who were first arraigned before the court on March 31, 2014.

    The charge stated that the offence was committed on October 12, 2012, near Edaiken Primary School Road at Uselu in Benin City.

  • Bank cashier jailed four years for N9.3m theft

    An Igbosere Magistrates’ Court, Lagos Wednesday sentenced a bank cashier, David Anibolu, to four years’ imprisonment for stealing N9, 308,000 from a customer’s First Bank of Nigeria (FBN) Plc account.

    Chief Magistrate A. O. Awogboro found him not guilty of a count of conspiracy but convicted him of stealing.

    Before sentencing, the convict’s counsel Philips Onyama made an allocutus for his client and pleaded for a sentence of a fine, or a lenient jail term.

    “He’s a first time offender; he has no father, only a sick mother who relies on him to survive. He has been in custody since March 24, 2014 and has suffered emotional and physical torture. He is also now more sober and refined,” Onyama added.

    Pronouncing judgment, Chief Magistrate Awogboro sentenced Anibolu to four years in prison, beginning from the date of his detention, adding that: “No one must be allowed to profit from his crime.”

    Anibolu, 26, was arraigned on April 3, 2014 by the Lion Building Police Division, Lagos, on a two-count charge of conspiracy and stealing contrary to Sections 409 and 285(8) of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2011.

    He denied the charge and was admitted to N500, 000 bail.

    During the protracted trial lasting two years and nine months, prosecuting Police Superintendent Chidi Okoye said the defendant, of No.15, Baale Street, Agbroko Iba in Ojo area of Lagos committed the offences on March 22 around 2pm at FBN Alaba 2 branch in Ojo.

    Okoye stated that the defendant, who was on annual vacation, came to the bank premises under the pretext that he wanted to help a customer to post his land use charges.

    “He fraudulently changed a customer’s identity and mandate card which enabled him to debit the said account of the sum N9 million and transferred it into various accounts,” he said.

    According to him, the theft and others committed by the accused were later discovered to be N9.308m.

    A forensic auditor attached to the bank, Solomon Akhanolu, was able to link the fraud to Anibolu through the password he used to change the customer’s identity and mandate card, the prosecutor said.

    According to Anibolu’s confessional statement which was tendered by the prosecution and admitted by the court, his accomplices, who are still at large, promised him N4million as his share of the fraud, but they disappeared with the money and gave him nothing.

    “I have been working with the bank as a teller since 2011 but on the day of the incident, I used the passwords of my colleagues with the help of “F” Key logger given to me by my friend called Afeez who is now at large. The logger helps link a customer’s identification with another that has online banking, which enables cash to be transferred successfully from one account to another. My regret now is that I was supposed to get N4 million as my share but the receivers of the money have since disappeared. I regret my action,” he said, according told the police.

    Although Anibolu disowned the statement in court, saying he was forced to make it at the station while he was detained, handcuffed, flogged and his legs chained, the court ruled during a trial within trial that there was no evidence of coercion and the prosecution’s testimony was credible.

    “There was also no trace of any bruise on the defendant,” Chief Magistrate Awogboro said and observed that since he was on leave, Anibolu did not need to go back to the bank to carry out the transaction.

    She added: “He could have made a phone call to his colleagues at the bank. If he did not have an ulterior motive, why should he be at the office on a Saturday?”

  • Son of Nigerian diplomat jailed for killing prostitute in UK

    Son of Nigerian diplomat jailed for killing prostitute in UK

    The son of a Nigerian  diplomat in China has received a life jail sentence in the United Kingdom after he was found guilty of raping and murdering a £1,800 -a-night high-class escort.
    26- year- old Bala Chinda was convicted by a high court in Aberdeen, Scotland, for the murder of  Jessica McGraa on February 11,2016, only a few weeks after he arrived in Scotland to study at Robert Gordon University in Aberdeen.
    After a six- hour consideration of the evidence before them, a jury of eight women and seven men on Friday unanimously found Chinda guilty of murdering Miss McGraa, also a Nigerian, in the city centre flat.
    Judge Lord Beckett told the jury they had gone about their duties commendably after listening to evidence they may have found ‘very distressing’.
    Chinda, he said, had ended the life of a woman described by friends giving evidence as ‘full of fun’ and who had much left to live for.
    Chinda was told he must serve a minimum of 18 years.
    CCTV footage showed McGraa, 37, had gone to Chinda’s student accommodation in the city’s King Street with him in a taxi before they returned to her apartment a short time later.
    She made her last call on her mobile phone a few minutes before surveillance cameras recorded Chinda, 26, walking down the street away from her flat.
    Her partially clothed body was found the following day in the bedroom of a flat she had rented in the city’s Union Terrace.
    Chinda who changed his phone number after McGraa’s death wept uncontrollably after he was found guilty by the jury.
    The court heard that Miss McGraa died of asphyxiation and was probably smothered with a pillow and possibly strangled with her scarf.
    Miss McGraa moved to the UK from Nigeria 11 years ago after meeting an English oil worker, Gareth McGraa, who had been working in a Nigerian complex.
    They married and had a son but later split.

  • Guard jailed six months for theft

    Magistrate Olanike Olagbende of an Igbosere Magistrates’ Court, Lagos,   yesterday sentenced a security guard, Samson Dennis, to six months in prison for stealing N122,500 from a lawyer’s home.

    Olagbende  sentenced Dennis without an option of fine following his guilty plea to a count of burglary. The police arraigned Dennis last July 21, for breaking into the home of legal practitioner, Tunrayo Akinmolayan and stealing the money.

    Prosecuting Corporal Friday Mameh told the court during facts and sentencing that the incident took place last June 25, at about 2pm, at Plot 13, Furo Ezimora Street, Lekki Phase 1.

    He said Akinmolayan reported the theft at Maroko Police Station, Lekki, last June 30, at about 1:45pm.

    “The complainant reported that one Samson Dennis, a security operative at the above address, unlawfully gained access to her apartment and stole the N122,500 that she kept in a shelf in her room.

    “ During investigation, the defendant admitted to committing the crime, adding that he bought a canvass shoe, wrist watch, face cap, ear phone, necklace, hand bangles, sports wears and sun glasses, with the stolen money.”

    The convict’s sentence will run from the day of arraignment.

  • Bus conductor jailed for stealing motorcycle 

    Bus conductor jailed for stealing motorcycle 

    An Igbosere Magistrates’ Court, Lagos Thursday convicted a 20-year-old bus conductor, Abass Akanbi, of stealing a motorcycle in the Lekki area of Lagos.

    Magistrate O. A. Olagbehinde (Miss) sentenced Akanbi to two months in Ikoyi Prison, Lagos, without an option of fine, after he admitted stealing an unregistered Bajaj motorcycle valued at N127, 000.

    The court accepted his plea of guilt after examining, among others, Akanbi’s confessional statement and the stolen motorcycle tendered as exhibits by prosecuting police CorporalFriday Mameh.

    Akanbi, an on-off bus conductor with no fixed address, was arrested by the police on April 24, alongside Ganiu Amos, the rider of a commercial motorcycle also known as ‘Okada’.

    Both men were arraigned the next day on a two-count charge of conspiracy and stealing, on Charge No. Q/26/2016, but Amos pleaded not guilty.

    He was later discharged following Akanbi’s confession that he acted alone and “based on the complainant’s withdrawal letter.”

    Corporal Mameh told the court during facts and sentencing Thursday that Akanbi and Amos were apprehended on April 24, around 11:30am at Oba Oyekan Estate, Lekki Phase One, Lagos.

    He said Akanbi, pretending to be a passenger, hired the Okada rider to drop him off at Oyekan Estate.

    He paid for his fare as he alighted but asked the motorcyclist to wait to take him back while he picked something from the estate.

    Akanbi, he added, was apprehended minutes later by security guards at the estate, as he fled on the stolen motorcycle.

    Amos was also arrested while waiting for his passenger.

    The prosecutor added that the stolen motorcycle was the property of one Yakubu Fali, a resident of the estate.

     

  • Man jailed four months for stealing N19, 000, computer game

    Man jailed four months for stealing N19, 000, computer game

    An Igbosere Magistrates’ Court, Lagos, Thursday convicted a 27-year-old man, Ibrahim Aiyelangbe, of burglarising a company.

    Magistrate O. A. Olagbehinde sentenced Aiyelangbe to four months in Ikoyi Prison, Lagos, without an option of fine, after he admitted stealing a Sony PlayStation Portable (PSP) Game and N19, 000 cash.

    The court accepted his plea of guilt after examining the stolen items tendered as exhibits by prosecuting police Corporal Friday Mameh.

    “I don’t have anything to say. I want the court to have mercy on me. I will not do it again,” Aiyelangbe said when the court asked him if he had anything to say.

    “The defendant is hereby sentenced to four months in prison beginning from the date of arraignment,” Magistrate Olagbehinde said.

    Aiyelangbe, of no fixed address, was arrested by the police on May 9 and arraigned on May 11, on a two-count felony charge, with No. Q/28/2016.

    Corporal Mameh told the court that on May 9, at about 1:30am Aiyelangbe scaled a fence into the premises of Axon Engineering Ltd on Glover Street, Ikoyi.

    The prosecutor added that Aiyelangbe stole “a PSP Game 2003 Model valued at N40,000 and the sum of N19,000 cash, totalling N59,000, property of Joshua Saidu Bature, a supervisor at Axon Engineering.”

    Mameh said Bature and a security operative on duty that night at the company, apprehended Aiyelangbe with the items within the company’s premises and handed him over to the police.

     

  • Two jailed seven years for illicit drug deal

     

     

    Justice Babs Kuewumi of ‎the Federal High Court in Lagos Tuesday sentenced Innocent Dike (32) and Godwin Ehigbue (36) to seven years imprisonment for illegal drug deal.

    They had pleaded guilty to a two-count charge filed against them by the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) when they were arraigned on April 11.‎

    Prosecution counsel, Mr. Jeremiah Aernan, tendered the convicts’ written statement, a request for scientific aid form, a drug analysis result, as well as a an envelope containing the banned narcotic.‎

    Justice Kuewumi held: “The accused are hereby found guilty as charged, and they are accordingly convicted. They are sentenced to a term of seven years imprisonment each, beginning from the date of their arrest.”

    The judge also ordered the drug seized from them to be destroyed.

    NDLEA operatives arrested the accused on February 17, 2014 ‎at Igbogbo in Ikorodu Lagos, with 9. 6 kg of Cannabis Sativa, also known as Indian hemp.

    The offence contravened Section11 (c) of the NDLEA Act, Cap N30, Laws of the Federation, 2004.

     

  • Jailed at 13, freed at 17

    Jailed at 13, freed at 17

    A 13-year-old orphan jailed for tampering with telephone cables is released four years after, but he needs care. TONY AKOWE reports

    In 2012 when he was arrested and jailed for tampering with telephone cables, Ibrahim Mohammed was 13. He vanished from reckoning. Four years later, through efforts from a youth centre and NYSC lawyers, he was rescued from prison. He has no one to turn to because he is an orphan. He has no one  to draw love from.

    What becomes of his dream to be a lawyer?

    He was bundled into prison, accused of tampering with NITEL cables in Katsina State. Much of the care and love he enjoys comes from members of the Youth Centre for Change and Positive Re-orientation, especially Mr. Abayomi Medemaku, a member of the group who stood surety for him. The NYSC legal aid scheme also helped.

    Medemaku has continued to fight for Mohammed.

    “This boy was remanded in Katsina Prison since April 12, 2012 for allegedly tampering with NITEL cables,” Medemaku said in a Twitter message. “I was able to stand as surety for him in court on January 27, 2016 with the support of the NYSC Legal Aid Scheme in Katsina. We took him home. The boy, however, needs support as most of his teenage years [have been] wasted in incarceration. He is now 17.”

    One of the coordinators of the youth centre, Khairat A. Ajiboye, told The Nation that Mohammed is currently undergoing counselling and has been taken to hospital for checkup and treatment. She said he has already been enrolled in a junior secondary school to prepare him for his life ambition.

    An unnamed non-governmental organisation and a former Chief Justice of Katsina State, Justice Mahmood Mahuta have been paying for his secondary education.

    Khairat said the youth centre has, “through Ibrahim’s case…seen how Nigerian youths and Nigeria in general need to develop in a lot of ways. There is a need to establish a rehabilitation centre for persons like [Mohammed]. The stigma alone is making him a recluse coupled with his abject poverty. In the meantime, the committee has got a good Samaritan, Aliyu Umar, an English graduate, who will keep an eye on Ibrahim, make sure he goes to school every day and also coach him in English Language and all necessary subjects”.

    The General Coordinator of the group, Sadiq Umar Abdullahi said the group was committed to ensuring that Mohammed get the best, pointing out that the offence for which he was sent to prison does not exist in the Nigerian legal system.

    He frowned at a situation where people are bundled into detention without proper investigation and trial, pointing out that Mohammed was made to spend a good part of his teenage years in prison. Abdullahi said the centre was set up to be a hub for many youth groups and youth leaders, including participation and collaboration. He explained this was in order to promote synergy of youth activities nationwide and to serve as the voice of youth entrepreneurs and innovators who ordinarily may not be seen or heard.

    He said further the centre is expected to serve as a leadership and identification centre for exemplary youths who have excelled in their different fields of endeavors, create awareness and education in the participation and involvement of youths in government organisa-tions and agencies and political activities during elections productively, retooling, educating and employing youths in to become productive in areas such as agriculture, and while creating awareness on negative effects of drug abuse and serve as watch dogs for corruption in governmental institutions and government officials.

  • Islamic cleric jailed for N340,000 scam

    An Igbosere Magistrate’s Court in Lagos has sentenced a self-styled Islamic cleric, Alhaji Ibrahim Ahamido, 47, to one year imprisonment for obtaining N340,000 from a woman under false pretence.

    The court also ordered him to return N240,000 to Sarah Moses after pleading guilty to the charge.

    He was arraigned on February 23 alongside his alleged girlfriend, Hawa Musa, 35, who pleaded not guilty. She was granted N100,000 bail by Magistrate J.O.A. Adepoju, with two sureties in the like sum. Hawa is expected back in court today.

    Before he was convicted last Wednesday, Ahamido tried to change his plea to not guilty. He claimed he did not understand the charge that was read to him on February 23.

    But, prosecuting Sergeant Cyriacus Osuji objected, saying: “Not only did the defendant admit the facts, he stated that out of the N340,000 defrauded, he gave N100,000 to the second defendant, his girlfriend. This he admitted orally. He also admitted that the statement he made was his.

    “It is too late in the day for him to change his plea as he has already admitted both before the court and in his confessional statement. It is also too late for him to retract his statement.”

    Magistrate Adepoju upheld Osuji’s submission and sentenced Ahamido.

    Last February 22, at Marwa Waterside, Lekki, in Eti-Osa Local Government Area, Ahamido cajoled Moses that he had supernatural ability to multiply her money.

    She initially doubted him but believed him after her son, who was in police custody, was freed after Ahamido prepared a concoction for her.

    She then handed over N340, 000 to Ahamido, who promised to boost her business by turning the money to N5 million. He told her to check under her pillow on her return from a trip abroad, that the object placed there would have become N5 million.

    When that didn’t work, he obtained another N9,000 from her for the same purpose but that failed too and he absconded with the cash, after allegedly giving Hawa N100,000.

    Ahamido and his girlfriend were arrested after she reported to the police.