Fraudster lands in prison

Andrew Orolua – Abuja.

Justice Mahmood Abdulgafar of Kwara State High Court, sitting in Ilorin, the state capital on Tuesday, July 16, 2019 ordered 41-year-old Hammed Folorunsho Lanre, a civil engineer to be remanded in Mandala Prison, Ilorin.

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Ilorin Zonal Office has arraigned Lanre on a two-count charge, bordering on obtaining money by false pretence, forgery and impersonation.

Justice Abdulgafar gave the order following an oral application by the prosecuting counsel, Andrew Akoja, who urged the court to remand the defendant in prison since his bail application has not been properly filed before the court.

The Ilorin Zonal Office of the EFCC had on Tuesday, July 8, 2019 arraigned Lanre in court, and he pleaded not guilty to the charges.

During the proceedings, Babatunde Shittu, one of the prosecution’s star witnesses told Justice Abdulgafar that following the petitioner’s allegation that Stanbic IBTC illegally withdrew the sum of N540,000 from his account, the EFCC invited the petitioner, who adopted his petition on May 26, 2019.

“I led a team of operatives to Stanbic IBTC. The bank officials brought the complainant’s statement of account which analysis revealed that the deducted money was transferred into a Bet9ja’s account,” Shittu said.

According to the witness, “We sent the information to Bet9ja and they gave us the details of their customer who has the account with them which happened to be the name of the defendant, Lanre.

We later sent a memo to our Lagos office to help locate and arrest the accused person. He was arrested and shown the petition and he denied the allegations.

During our investigations, we discovered that N540,000 (Five Hundred and Forty Thousand Naira) was credited into his Bet9ja’s account. He moved N130,000 (One Hundred and Thirty Thousand Naira) into his FCMB account immediately. We equally discovered that he transferred the money from his friend’s account.

“We also discovered his friend (the petitioner) gave him his phone to access FaceBook and along the line, he had accessed his pin and withdrew his money.”

Justice Abdulgafar adjourned the matter to July 18, 2019 for further hearing.