Justice M. Tukur of the State High Court Kaduna has convicted and sentenced two persons to various jail terms for fraud. One of them, Adeshina Abdulrasheed was sentenced to two and a half years imprisonment on a one count charge bordering on cheating and impersonation, while the other, Danjuma Bilyaminu bagged six months jail term.
The charge against Abdulrasheed reads โโ That you Adeshina Abdulrasheed, sometime in July 2020 at Barnawa and within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court, did attempt an offence of cheating by impersonation, when you pretended to be one Lollie Garbow on Facebook and in such assumed character, sent several scam messages to unsuspecting victims wherein you fraudulently told them about a Bill and Malinda Gate Foundation programme with intent of cheating them, thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 57 of the Kaduna State Penal Code Law, 2017 and punishable under Section 309 of the same Lawโโ
The defendant pleaded guilty to the charge, prompting prosecuting counsel, P.C Onyeneho to ask the court to convict him accordingly,
Justice Tukur consequently convicted and sentenced Abdulrasheed to two and a half years imprisonment with the option of One Hundred and Fifty Thousand Naira(N150,000:00) fine. The iphone used in perpetrating the crime was ordered forfeited to the Federal Government.
Abdulrasheed who hails from Oyo State but resides in Jos, Plateau State, was arrested at a hotel in Kaduna by Operatives of the Commission acting on intelligence.
He is alleged to be involved in dating scam on Instagram and lures women to send him money as gift cards which he sells on Paxful Platform and convert to Bitcoin. He uses ‘Ryan Edward’ on his Instagram handle and defrauded M. Carmen, a Mexican, among other victims.
Further investigation revealed that he has twelve facebook accounts bearing the following names: Alex Wolf, Anas Charalabou, Betty Jimenez, Ehi Kingley, Arobot Abdul and others.
In a related development, Justice Tukur convicted and sentenced one Nura Danjuma Bilyaminu to six months inprisonment without option of fine for obtaining money by false pretence. The defendant who is the promoter of Binomo Trade Investment between April 1, 2020 and November 3, 2020 defrauded many victims of a culmulative sum of three million three hundred and twenty eight thousand four hundred and thirty nine naira(N3,328,439:00) in phony investment, using promises of mouthwatering returns on investment as baits.
The charge reads, “that you Nura Danjuma (M)sometimes in May, 2020 in Kaduna within the jurisdiction of this Honorable court, did commit cheating to wit; by representing yourself to be Umar Usman to one Abubakar Abdullahi and fraudulently induced him to pay you the sum of Twenty Five Thousand Naira ( N25,000) as an investment for Binomo Trade Investment, which you knew to be false and you thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 308 of the Kaduna State Penal Code Law, 2017 and punishable under section 309 of the same Law”.
He pleaded guilty to the charge.
Prosecuting counsel, M. Lawal urged the court to convict the defendant accordingly, while the defence counsel, U.A. Salisu pleaded for leniency.
Justice M. Tukur however convicted and sentenced the defendant to six months imprisonment without option of fine.
