A lecturer with the Kwara State College of Health Technology, Offa, Abdullahi Opashola, was on Monday arraigned before the State High Court over romance scam.
Opashola was arraigned on one count before Justice Adenike Akinpelu by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission and pleaded guilty to the charge.
The offence was said to contravene Section 95 of the Penal Code and punishable under Section 324 of the same law.
According to the EFCC, Opashola was among the 32 alleged Internet fraudsters arrested in Offa on September 14, 2020.
Following his plea, the EFCC counsel, Andrew Akoja, led an operative of the agency, Paul Kera, in evidence to review the facts of the case.
Kera said, “An investigation on a petition received by the commission on the activities of Internet fraudsters operating in Offa 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 phone, which he used as an instrument of the crime. The defendant was taken to our office, where he volunteered his statement.”
The EFCC tendered Opashola’s statements, two computer attestation forms, an Infinix phone recovered from him as well as the alleged fraudulent messages printed out of his email.
Akoja, however, urged the court to convict the defendant based on his plea and evidence placed before it, but Justice Akinpelu adjourned till February 23, 2021, for judgment and ordered that the defendant be remanded in the EFCC custody.
The charge reads, “That you, Opashola Abdullahi, (alias Devin Snow), sometime in August 2020 in Ilorin, within the jurisdiction of this honourable court, did attempt to cheat by impersonation and portraying yourself as a female named Devine Snow, via your email address devinesnow677@gmail.com to one Eugene Myvett to induce him to send you $200, a representation you knew to be false, thereby committing an offence contrary to Section 95 of the Penal Code and punishable under Section 324 of the same law.”
