OYO:
SIBLINGS BAG 19-YEAR JAIL TERM FOR DEFRAUDING BUSINESS WOMAN OF N13.5M
Magistrate Oladele Adisa of an Oyo state Chief Magistrate Court sitting at Iyaganku sitting in Ibadan on Monday sentenced two siblings; Amidu Amoo (50), his younger brother, Jelili Amoo (37) and Muritala Adeyemi (38) for fraudulently obtaining the sum of N13.5m from an Ibadan-based businesswoman, Mrs Adetoun Oladeji, popularly known as ‘For the Mama Ke’ for a landed property situated at Ologun-eru Area of Ibadan.
The court sentenced the trio that were arraigned on June 25, 2013, on an 11-count charge of conspiracy, obtaining money under false pretence and stealing, to 19 years imprisonment each without an option of fine for obtaining money under false pretence.
The accused persons, who were arraigned on a Charge delineated MI/765C/2013, however pleaded not guilty to the charges leveled against them when the prosecutor, Mr Opeyemi Olagunju, told the court that the accused persons and others now at large, between 2010 and 2001 at Ologun-eru area, Ibadan, in the Ibadan magisterial district, conspired together to steal.
He also said that the accused persons, on the same date, time and place, obtained the sum of N6 million from one Mrs Adetoun Oladeji on the pretence to sell her eight acres of land situated at Ologun-eru, Eleyele Ibadan, adding that the accused persons and others now at large stole Mrs. Oladeji’s money valued at N6m and also obtained the sum of N3.5 million with the pretence to sell to her some acres of land at Ologun-eru Area of Ibadan.
Olagunju said that all the offences were contrary to and punishable under Sections 516, 419, 390(9) of the Criminal Code, Cap 38, Vol. II, Laws Oyo State of Nigeria, 2000.
In the course of the trial, the prosecutor made an application that the name of the first accused person, Jelili Amoo, be deleted from the charge pending his arrest since he had absconded from the court.
The counsel to the defendant, Dare Adebayo, however, opposed the application but prayed the court to temper justice with mercy.
In his ruling, Magistrate Oladele Adisa, said that the name of the first accused person, Jelili Amoo, should not be deleted from the charge sheet but ordered the police to intensify efforts to arrest him to enable him to serve his jail term.
He thereafter found the accused persons guilty of all the charges and sentenced them to three years imprisonment on counts one and two years each of counts two to nine, without an option of fine. They are however to serve the terms concurrently.
Counsel to the complainant, Mr Chima Onah, expressed satisfaction with the judgment which he said had been long awaited.
“We have been on this case since 2012. Most times, the convicts would jump bail. It would take months before they would be re-arrested and taken back to court. The matter had been dragging in the last seven years but thank God that today, we have been able to obtain the judgment.
We also thank God that Mama (Mrs. Adetoun Oladeji) has been vindicated with the judgment. It is now clear that Mama did not defraud anybody. Rather, she was the one that was defrauded. It is, therefore, a thing of joy that justice has been served,” Onah said.
In her remarks, Mrs Oladeji said she was extremely happy about the judgment, saying that she had sometimes been dragged to the Federal Criminal Investigation Bureau (FCIB), Alagbon in Lagos by an Ibadan-based popular Gospel singer who thought she had defrauded her on the controversial landed property.
@ Nigerian Tribune
