The Kwara State High Court in Ilorin, presided over by Justice Mahmud Abdulgafar, has sentenced a self-proclaimed spiritualist, Odeyemi Hammed Oluwaseun, to one year imprisonment for internet fraud.
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Ilorin Zonal Directorate, prosecuted Oluwaseun on a two-count charge of impersonation, internet fraud, and obtaining by false pretences.
In a statement released on Thursday by the EFCC’s Head of Media and Publicity, Dele Oyewale, said Oluwaseun, the 23-year-old man that hails from Oyo State, defrauded his victims on the internet by posing as an American-based female spiritualist with powers to cause jilted women and estranged wives to regain the affection of their men.
Count one of the charges reads: “That you, Odeyemi Hammed Oluwaseun, sometime in December, 2023 in Ilorin, within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court, dishonestly induced one Bose to send $3200 worth of gift cards to you, with the impression that the same would be used to diabolically influence her ex-husband to return and marry her, while you pretended and represented yourself to be one Lord Hill, a female spiritualist with email account hillor674@gmail.com, and you thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 321 of the Penal Code and punishable under Section 324 of the same Penal Code.”
Count two reads: “That you, Odeyemi Hammed Oluwaseun, between August, 2023 to September, 2023 in Ilorin within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court, dishonestly induced one Schneider Alina to send $4500 worth of gift cards to you, with the impression that the same would be used to diabolically control her ex-boyfriend to return and marry her, while you represented yourself to be a female spiritualist with Instagram account _Visions_by_Tendo_12 and you thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 321 of the Penal Code and punishable under Section 324 of the same Penal Code”
The suspect pleaded guilty to the charges when they were read to him, following which prosecution counsel, Sesan Ola reviewed the facts of the case, tendered the convict’s extra-judicial statements and evidence, including the sum of $1000 recovered from him and prayed the court to convict and sentence him as charged.
“Convinced that the prosecution has proven its case beyond reasonable doubt, Justice Abdulgafar sentenced Oluwaseun to six months suspended jail term on each of the counts, and ordered that the sum of $1000, iPhone 15 and 2008 Toyota Camry car recovered from him be forfeited to the federal government,” he said.