Opashola Abdullahi, a lecturer at the Kwara State College of Health Technology, Offa, on Monday appeared before a high court sitting in Ilorin on one count charge bordering on romance scam.
Opashola, who appeared before Justice Adenike Akinpelu, was among 32 internet fraud suspects arrested in Offa, on September 14, 2020 by the Ilorin Zonal office of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission.
The charge sheet by the EFCC, read; ” That you, Opashola Abdullahi (alias Devin Snow), sometime in the month of August 2020, in Ilorin, within the jurisdiction of this honourable court, did attempt to cheat by personation, by portraying yourself as a female named Devine Snow via your email address [email protected] to one Eugene Myvett in order to induce him to send you 200 US dollars, a representation you knew to be false and thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 95 of the Penal code and punishable under Section 324 of the same law.
Opashola, pleaded guilty when the charge was read to him.
Following his plea, Counsel to the EFCC, Andrew Akoja, led Paul Kera, an operative of the anti-graft agency to review the facts of the case.
In his evidence, Kera, narrated how an investigation on a petition received by the Commission on the activities of internet fraudsters operating in the Offa area of Kwara State, led to the arrest of the defendant.
“Our findings revealed that the defendant created an email address, which he was using to defraud unsuspecting victims.
“During a search executed in his house, we recovered an Infinix Nokia phone which he used as instruments for the crime.
“The defendant was taken to our office, where he volunteered his statement,” Kera told the court.
Documents including copies of statements, two computer attestation forms, an Infinix phone recovered from the defendant, as well as the fraudulent messages printed out of his email account were tendered and admitted in evidence,
Akoja, thereafter urged the court to convict the defendant based on his plea and evidence placed before it.
The trial judge, while discharging the witness from the witness box, fixed February 23, 2021 for judgement and ordered the defendant to remain in EFCC custody pending judgement.
