Justice A. A Bello of the Kaduna State High Court has convicted one Oluwayemisi Samuel and her Son, Joshua Samuel, on separate one-count charges each bordering on false information.
Oluwayemisi and Joshua squandered the sum of N5,600,000 on sports betting and caused a false petition to be sent to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, alleging that the money was fraudulently withdrawn from their Opay account to a sports betting account without their authorisation by an unknown individual.
The separate counts read; “That you, Oluwayemisi Samuel (F) and Hezekiah Samuel (now at large) sometime in March, 2023 in Kaduna State within the jurisdiction of the Honourable Court, committed an offence to wit; wilfully gave false information to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, which information was used to carry out investigation on your complaint to the Commission, which information you knew to false and thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 16(1) of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (Establishment) Act, 2004 and punishable under Section 16(2) of the same Act.
“That you, Joshua Samuel (M) and Hezekiah Samuel ( now at large) sometime in March, 2023 in Kaduna State within the jurisdiction of the Honourable Court, committed an offence to wit; wilfully gave false information to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, which information was used to carry out investigation on your complaint to the Commission, which information you knew to false and thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 16(1) of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (Establishment) Act, 2004 and punishable under Section 16(2) of the same Act”.
The defendants pleaded guilty to the charges. In view of their pleas, prosecution counsel N. Salele urged the court to convict them accordingly.
Justice Bello however convicted and sentenced both defendants to 7 years imprisonment each with an option of N 150,000 fine.