By Jude-Ken Ojinnaka
Three members of currency counterfeiting syndicate will spend two years in jail each, following their conviction and sentence by Federal High Court, sitting in Lagos.
The three convicts, Adekunle Akinsinde Alabi, Bakare Taofeek Ajibola and Olawepo Segun Ayinde were convicted and sentenced over an offence bothering on currency counterfeiting to the tune of $269.000 (USD), preferred against them by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
The trial judge, Justice Nicholas Oweibo passed the sentence on the convicts after they changed their earlier plea of ‘not guilty’ when they were initially arraigned on four-count charge, to ‘guilty’ plea during the course of their trial.
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Having seen the overwhelming evidence against them at the resumed hearing of the charge, the convicts told the court of their intention to change their plea.
The development prompted the prosecution to amend the charges.
One of the counts reads: “That you, Adekunle Akinsinde Alabi, Bakare Taofeek Ajibola and Olawepo Segun Ayinde, on the 20th January, 2023 in Lagos, within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court, had in your possession the sum of $269.000 USD (Two Hundred and Sixty-Nine Thousand United States Dollars) worth of counterfeit currency, contrary to and punishable under Section 5(1)(b) of Counterfeit Currency Special Provisions) Act Cap. C 35, Law of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004.”
Consequent upon their change of plea, the prosecution counsel, G. C. Akaogu, called to the witness box an operative of the EFCC, Okara Godwin to review the facts.
In reviewing the facts of the charge, Okara told the court that the defendants were arrested sometime in January 2023, adding that upon their arrests, they wrote their statements, investigations were conducted and forensic evidence documented.
Akaogu applied to tender in evidence, the extra-judicial statements of the convicts, admission of confessional statement forms, the counterfeit notes and forensic investigation documents from the EFCC laboratory. They were admitted by the court as exhibits.
In her allocutus, defence counsel, Mercy Akhabue Ozumobi, pleaded for leniency, saying that they are ignorant and were used by scrupulous persons.
Their counsel also told the court that the convicts are first time offenders and bread winners in their respective homes, and that they have become remorseful for their actions.
In the judgement Justice Oweibo sentenced the defendants to two years imprisonment each, effective from the date of arrest in January, with an option of N500,000 fine.
The convicts were arrested by operatives of the National Drugs Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) in collaboration with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on January 19, 2023 in the Oniru area of Lagos state, following intelligence reports received from the United States Drug Enforcement Administration.
