Ilorin Court Sentenced 21-Year-Old Man To Prison For Love Scam

Adeogun Timileyin Feranmi, 21, was sentenced to six months in prison by a Kwara State High Court in Ilorin for internet-related scams and impersonation.

Adeogun, who is from Abule-Egba, Abeokuta in the Odeda Local Government Area of Ogun State, was charged with one count of money laundering before Justice Adenike Akinpelu of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, in Ilorin.

The defendant entered a plea of guilty to the charge leveled at him.

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Feranmi was one of thirty internet fraud suspects arrested by operatives of the anti-graft agency during a sting operation on September 19, 2021, in Malete, Moro Local Government Area of Kwara State, in response to intelligence reports about their alleged involvement in fraud-related activities.

“That you, Adeogun Timileyin Feranmi, on or about the 20th day of October 2019 in Ilorin, Kwara State within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court, did cheat by personation when you pretended to be one Hannah Sanabria via your gmail address hannahsanabriah@gmail.com and communicated with one Reus Saints whom you induced to part with property towith: $1500 via bitcoin,” according to the charge sheet.

According to the anti-graft agency, the offense is in violation of Section 321 of the Penal Code Law and is punishable under Section 324 of the same Law.

Following his guilty plea, EFCC counsel Rasheedat Alao called a witness, whom she led into evidence to go over the case’s facts.

The witness, who is a commission operative, described the events that led to the defendant’s arrest and presented one HP laptop and several fraudulent documents printed from the defendant’s device as exhibits, all of which were admitted in evidence.

Following that, Alao prayed that the court take judicial notice of the defendant’s guilty plea, his extrajudicial statements, and the exhibits presented, and convict him as charged.

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Justice Akinpelu upheld the prosecution’s claim that the EFCC had proven its case beyond a reasonable doubt in her decision.

Feranmi was sentenced to six months in prison and a fine of N150,000 by the trial judge.

The court also ordered the defendant’s HP laptop, which was recovered at the time of his arrest, to be forfeited to the federal government.