Forex Trader, Two Others Jailed for Internet Fraud in Ilorin
The Ilorin Zonal Command of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, has secured the conviction and sentencing of a 26-year-old forex trader, Kolawole Temidayo Joshua and two others for offences bordering on internet fraud.
The two others are Abdullahi Isiak and Daniel Roland Orji.
The trio were jailed after pleading guilty to one-count separate charge bordering on internet fraud, consequent on their arraignment before Justice Mahmoud Abdulgafar of the Kwara State High sitting in Ilorin.
The charge against Joshua reads:
“That you, Kolawole Temidayo Joshua, sometime between April and May, 2023 at Ilorin within the Judicial Division of the High Court, did cheat by personation, when you pretended to be one Mia Phillips vide your google voice account: [email protected] and induced one Daniel Murphy a.k.a Wagba Wealth and Danny, to part with gross sum of $400 (Four Hundred US Dollars) through Gift Cards and thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 321 of the Penal Code and punishable under Section 324 of the Penal Code”.
The defendants pleaded guilty to their respective one-count charge when they were read to them.
At the resumed hearing on Wednesday, October 11, 2023, EFCC counsels; Muinat Bello and Isabel Adeniran, while reviewing the facts of the cases narrated the circumstances that led to the arrest of the defendants. The counsels also tendered exhibits including phones, extra judicial statements and money which they brought as restitution by the defendants, which were admitted in evidence.
Justice Abdulgafar in his judgment found the defendants guilty and convicted them as charged. He sentenced Joshua to six months imprisonment with an option of fine of N500,000 (Five Hundred Thousand Naira Only) and ordered that one iphone 12 and the sum of $200 (Two Hundred United States Dollars), which are proceeds of the crime, be forfeited to the federal government.
The court also sentenced Isiak to six months imprisonment, which is to be suspended and ordered that the iphone 12 promax used as instrument of crime be forfeited to the Federal Government.
Equally, Orji was sentenced to six months imprisonment with an option of fine of N150,000 (One Hundred and Fifty Thousand Naira only) while an iphone 6 and the sum of $250 (Two Hundred and Fifty United States Dollars), recovered from him, were forfeited to the Federal Government.
The three convicts’ began their journey to the Correctional Centre when they were arrested by operatives of the Commission, at three different locations in the state, for internet-related offences. They were investigated, prosecuted and convicted.
Another symptom of darkness is poverty. Bartimaeus was not just blind, he was also poor. The Bible recorded that he was a blind beggar. Any situation that involves begging to eat is called poverty. The Almighty God’s plan is not for you to be a beggar, but rather that you would prosper. For several years, the enemy kept the Church in darkness and pastors began to equate holiness with poverty. The devil knows that you can spread the gospel faster if you have money. I don’t know about you, but in the name of Jesus Christ, I am going to prosper because light stands for prosperity.
Darkness works to make you poor, but it is the duty of the Light to make you rich. (2 Corinthians 8:9) says clearly:
For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich.
He became poor that you, through His poverty, might become rich. If you are truly a child of God, carrying the Light of the Almighty within you, I have good news for you: all those who have been saying that you are going to die poor shall be disappointed. (3 John 2) says He wishes above all things that you would prosper and be in health, even as your soul prospers. If God wishes that you prosper as long as your soul is prospering, it doesn’t matter what the devil may be planning – you will be prosperous.
There was a very wealthy man who quarreled with his wife. She said to him, “I will see to it that you trek in this Lagos”. This man was so wealthy that he had more than 14 cars, so he just laughed the threat off. However, by the day this man came to our Church for the first time, he had only one car left and 50 kobo with him. He wanted to buy food with the money but knew that if he did, he would end up walking home like his wife had said, so he decided to just buy fuel. When he came to the Light, the tide turned in his favour. The day he gave his testimony, he was dedicating two new houses. God can take you from abject poverty to affluence if you give your life to Him and live holy.
PRAYER POINT:
Father, please let Your light send the darkness of poverty far away from me, in Jesus’ name.
5 important truths:
1. Life is short
2. Sin has consequences
3. Death is certain
4. Hell has no exits
5. Only Jesus saves
Romans 6:23 - “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”