By Dele Moses, Ilorin
A Kwara State High Court in Ilorin has sentenced a 29-year-old internet fraudster, Ademola Adebukola to six months imprisonment.
Adebukola whose nickname is “Holy Ghost” was sentenced after he was convicted on four counts of cheating and attempt to cheat by the court.
Justice Adenike Akinpelu convicted the defendant on each of the counts after he pleaded guilty to the charges brought against him by the Ilorin Zonal Office of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). The sentences are to run concurrently from September 14, 2020.
The court also ordered the forfeiture of the convict’s iPhone 5 and Dell Laptop, being the tools used to perpetrate the crime, to the Federal Government.
One of the charges against the convict reads: “That you, Ademola Adebukola, sometime in 2018, at Ilorin, within the Judicial Division of the Kwara State High Court while acting as Blackmore G. Scott a.k.a Holy Ghost with email address holyghost643@gmail.com did attempt to cheat one Sherri Reed by fraudulently inducing her to deliver the sum of $3,500 (Three Thousand, Five Hundred United States Dollars) to you under the guise of being in a romantic relationship with her and in need of money to clear goods at the Seaport and thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 320 of the Penal Code and punishable under Section 322 of the Penal Code”
Another count reads: “That you, Ademola Adebukola, sometime in July 2020, at Ilorin, within the Judicial Division of the Kwara State High Court while acting as David Frenchman with email address msccruiseworld@gmail.com did attempt to cheat by personation, when you presented yourself to one Wanda Smith of wsmith1166@yahoo.com as being a Caucasian Male in romantic relationship with her, 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 Penal Code. “