In Kwara, a US military impostor receives a one-year sentence.

On Friday, July 30, Justice Mahmood Abdulgafar of the Kwara State High Court in Ilorin sentenced Abdulsalam Oyeyemi, a young Nigerian undergraduate, to one year in prison for impersonating an American military officer to swindle unsuspecting victims.

On Thursday, July 29, 2021, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission’s (EFCC) Ilorin Zonal Office arraigned Oyeyemi, 23, on a single-count charge of personation and online scam.

The charge was as follows:

“That you, Abdulsalam Oyeyemi (a.k.a Colt Williams, James Anderson) dishonestly induced one Cristina Gobin (a.k.a Cristina Haripaul), a white lady to send you bitcoins worth the sum of 1,255 Canadian Dollars in Ilorin, Kwara State within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court sometime in March, 2020 or thereabouts in Ilorin, Kwara State within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court when you

The defendant admitted to the accusation and entered a guilty plea.

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Aliyu Adebayo, the EFCC’s counsel, led an operative of the Commission through a review of the facts of the case. During this time, incriminating items discovered on the defendant during his arrest were presented and allowed into evidence. Extrajudicial remarks by the defendant, fake messages printed from his phones, and the manager’s cheque (bank draft) for N200,000 (Two Hundred Thousand Naira) raised as restitution to the victim are among them.

Justice Abdulgafar stated in his judgment that the court carefully weighed the prosecution’s case, the defendant’s plea of guilty, his extrajudicial utterances, and the materials presented before the court, and found validity in it.

Following that, the judge sentenced Oyeyemi to a year at the Mandala Correctional Centre in Ilorin.

“The penalty shall be suspended for one year,” he says.

The court then ordered the confiscation of the convict’s iPhone and the Manager’s N200,000 (Two Hundred Thousand Naira) compensation check to the Federal Government.

The judge continued, “The punishment is without the option of a fine.”