A National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) member currently serving in Ibadan, Oyo State, has been found guilty of a two-count sex scam charge preferred against him by the Ilorin Zonal Office of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
Justice Adenike Akinpelu of the Kwara State High Court sitting in Ilorin, while delivering judgment on the matter on Monday, sentenced Oyeyemi Caleb to a one-year prison term on each of the counts, to run concurrently. The judge, however, gave him an option fine of N200,000 (Two Hundred Thousand Naira) on each count.
Oyeyemi, 21, a native of Odo-Owa in Oke-Ero Local Government Area of Kwara State, was arrested on March 16, 2020, by operatives of the EFCC based on intelligence reports. According to the report, Oyeyemi allegedly posed as a White lady, an online prostitute to scam one Wilson (a White man) to the tune of $100 US Dollars in order to offer him sex.
He confessed to the crime and was arraigned in court on November 26, 2020.
Count one of the charge reads:
‘That you, Oyeyemi Caleb, sometime in January 2020 or thereabout at Ilorin, Kwara State, within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court dishonestly induced one Wilson, a white Man to send you 100USDollar when you knowingly pretended and represented yourself to be a white lady, an online prostitute, who was ready to have sex with him for money which representation you knew to be false as it is contained in your Gmail account, caychatty414@gamial.com and thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 321 and punishable under Section 324 of the Penal Code Laws of Northern Nigeria.’
He pleaded guilty when the counts were read to him.
Upon his plea, counsel to the EFCC, Aliyu Adebayo led one Jideofor Osaji, an operative of the Commission to review the facts of the case. Osaji narrated how the defendant was arrested somewhere around the Akerebiata area of Ilorin. He said three different types of phones were recovered from him and tendered several fraudulent documents printed out from his email addresses, which were admitted in evidence.
Adebayo urged the court to convict the defendant as charged based on his plea and the evidence placed before it.
Delivering judgement at a resumed sitting on Monday, Justice Akinpelu said ‘the plea of guilt entered by the defendant is a total admission to the crime.’
The judge thereafter pronounced Oyeyemi guilty of the charge and accordingly sentenced him. She ordered that his phones and the manager cheque (Bank draft) of N80,000 (Eighty Thousand Naira) which he brought to the EFCC office be forfeited to the federal government.
