Justice Habeeb Abiru of the Ikeja High Court in Lagos jailed a staff of Ecobank Plc. and three others on Monday for defrauding a woman of N2.25 million under the pretext of helping her to procure travel visas. The convicts are Sunday Okewu, Chinedu Oji, Adeshina Yahaya, and Stanley Njoku.
The court found them guilty of conspiring among themselves sometime in 2009 to defraud one Solape Wajero, under the pretence that they would help her procure five United Kingdom Visas and two Shenghen Visas.
The convicts were charged on a 16-count charge bothering on conspiracy, fraud, and forgery and uttering ,among others, by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
The offences contravened Section 1 (3) of the Advance Fee Fraud and other Fraud Related Offences Act No. 14 of 2006.
It also contravened Sections 516 and 467 of the Criminal Code of the Criminal Code Cap. C 17, Vol. 2, Laws of Lagos State of Nigeria, 2003.
Delivering his judgment, Abiru held that the prosecutor proved its case “beyond reasonable doubts” in the charges preferred against the convicted persons.
The court found Oji and Yahaya guilty of conspiracy and fraud, and they were sentenced to nine years imprisonment each.
The duo also bagged two years imprisonment each on the seventh count of forgery.
Okewu, a banker, was sentenced to two years for assisting Oji to open an Ecobank account under a false name, Johnson Williams Briggs, and he admitted collecting N100, 000 for the purpose.
Njoku bagged a seven-year jail term for conspiracy and obtaining money under false pretence by pretending to be a driver to the Chief Protocol Officer of Chevron at a meeting with the victim.
The Judge said Njoku admitted during trial that he was paid N50, 000 by the mastermind, (Oji), and had refunded the money to EFCC during investigations.
Abiru said the sentences would run concurrently starting from Jan. 10, 2010 when they were first arraigned and remanded in prison custody.
Oji and Yahaya had approached the victim with the promise of helping her procure five United Kingdom and two German Visas for her clients.
Wajero had paid the money in two installments into an Ecobank account in the name of Johnson Williams Briggs, who claimed to be an official of the British High Commission.
The convicts were said to have disappeared after the transaction, which prompted the victim to petition the EFCC, and revealed that the two UK visas earlier given to her were forged.
It was also discovered that Oji was the same person as Briggs and had opened the account solely for the purpose of perpetrating the fraud.