A factory worker, one Emmanuel Adeyemi Olukoya, was on Monday, March 1, 2021, charged to court by the Ibadan zonal office of Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), for allegedly obtaining money under false pretence.
Docked before Justice Joyce Abdulmalik of the Federal High Court, Ibadan, Olukoya, who claimed to be working with a Chinese company, had a 30-count charge brought against him.
In a statement by the Head, Media and Publicity, EFCC, Wilson Uwujaren, on March 2, he said that Olukoya was accused of obtaining under false pretence, contrary to Section 1 (1) (a) of the Advance Fee Fraud and Other Fraud Related Offences Act 2006, and punishable by Section 1 (3) of the same Act.
One of the charges read: “That you, Olukoya Emmanuel Adeyemi ‘M’, on or about the 26th day of April 2019 in Ibadan, within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court, with intent to defraud, obtained the sum of N77,000.00 (Seventy-Seven Thousand Naira Only) from one Ajiboye Adeniye Hammeed through your Access Bank Account Number 0728344783, under the false pretence that you have given him employment with the Nigeria Customs, and that the payment was for the Customs job replacement and training kit, a pretext which you knew to be false and you deceitfully made it, and you thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 1 (1) (a) of the Advance Fee Fraud and Other Fraud Related Offences Act 2006 and punishable by Section 1 (3) of the same Act.”
The defendant, however, pleaded ‘not guilty’ to all the charges.
In view of his plea, the prosecuting counsel, Chidi Okoli applied for a trial date and prayed the Court to remand the defendant in the custody of the Nigerian Correctional Service.
But counsel to the defendant, Peniela Akintujoyen, in a motion he moved, prayed the Court to admit the defendant to bail, an application that was opposed by the prosecution counsel.
After listening to the arguments of both counsel, Justice Abdulmalik remanded the defendant in Agodi Custodial Centre and adjourned the case till March 31, 2021, for trial and ruling on the defendant’s bail application.
Uwujaren disclosed that trouble started for Olukoya, when a petition was received by the Commission, alleging that sometimes in 2019, he obtained several sums from unsuspecting victims on the pretext that he had secured employment slots for them with the Nigeria Customs Service and extorted over N1million from his victims.
