A 33-year-old Tanzania-based herder, Tunde Olagunju, and two others, Hassan Gafar Olarewaju (29) and Ojo Basit, an Ilorin-based bricklayer were arraigned in court on Monday by the Ilorin Zonal Command of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, on separate charges to which they pleaded guilty.
Following the plea of guilt by the defendants, Aliyu Adebayo, who prosecuted for the anti-graft agency, in the case against Tunde Olagunju, drew the attention of the court to the plea bargain agreement entered by the defendant and urged the court to convict and sentence him based on his admittance of guilt and the evidence before it.
On the case against Hassan and Ojo, Andrew Akoja, the representative of the EFCC, in the two cases, also asked the court to take judicial notice of the guilty plea and plea bargain agreements by the two defendants, as well as the evidence tendered against them in sentencing the defendants.
Justice Oyinloye, in his judgment on the cases, said he had carefully considered the facts and circumstances of the matter, most especially the charges, the plea of guilt entered by the defendants, evidence tendered without objection and their confessional statements.
The trial judge said the defence had failed to neutralize the allegations brought against the defendants and held that there was no justifiable reason for the court to free them off the hook.
The court found the defendants guilty of the offences and sentenced Tunde Olagunju to two years imprisonment with a N650,000 option of fine and further ordered that the 1,500 US dollars he benefitted from the crime and the iPhone used to commit the crime to be forfeited to the Federal Government.
Ojo, on his part, was sentenced to a one-year jail term on count one with N250,000 option of fine and one-year imprisonment on count two, also with N250,000 fine option.
Justice Oyinloye, however, said the custodial sentences, would run concurrently, but ” if the convict prefers the fine option, he shall pay the fine on both counts.”
He also ordered the forfeiture of Ojo’s Silver coloured Toyota Camry car 2009 model with registration number LSR 431 GV, which he acquired with the proceeds of unlawful activities, Gold iPhone 12 Pro and 200 US dollars which he benefitted from the crime to the Federal government.
Justice Oyinloye, sentenced Hassan to one-year imprisonment with an option of N300,000 fine in addition to the forfeiture of the iPhone XR recovered from him at the point of arrest to the Federal Government.
