An Internet fraudster otherwise known as ‘yahoo boy’ has been sentenced to one year in prison by Justice Oluwatoyin Taiwo of the Lagos State Special Offences Court.
Saraki Must Go – Oshiomole Insists
The yahoo boy identified as Abraham Sunday was handed a one year jail term following a plea bargain deal reached with the prosecutors.
Mr. Abraham had pleaded guilty to two counts of obtaining money under false pretences as well as possession of documents used for fraud.
The yahoo boy was caught after he defrauded a certain Marlen back in 2017 using the social media platform; Interpal.
Abraham had disguised himself under the pseudonym Raymond Dodson, an American citizen whose business is exporting of solid minerals.
Sunday took his deception a step further by forging a Texas Drivers license to convince his victim that he was an American citizen.
In his confessional statement to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), the yahoo boy said Marlene sent money to him through Western Union.
He continued;
“I communicated with Marlene through WhatsApp with a white man’s picture as my display picture. Marlene sent me $300 and $280 to support me when I told her I was stranded in Nigeria.
When I met her online, I told her that I liked her and would love to have a relationship with her, which she agreed to. I told her that I was an American citizen and that I lived in Texas, which she believed because of the white man’s picture on my DP.
I told Marlene that she would be helping me to send money through Western Union to Nigeria from my clients in the USA. I told her the money was to get samples of solid minerals in Nigeria, which she believed.
After a while, I told her to send me money from her account for an urgent matter and that I would return it when my clients in the USA pay me.”
Mr. Abraham had earlier been arraigned on a three counts charge bordering on possession of fraudulent documents, which he pleaded not guilty to.
At Tuesday’s proceedings however, the convict’s counsel, Z. S. Makinde, informed the court that his client had exploited the opportunity of a plea bargain.
He was thereafter re-arraigned on two counts of obtaining money by false pretences and possession of fraudulent documents, which he pleaded guilty to.
After the plea, the prosecution counsel, Bikisu Buhari, urged the court to give judgement accordingly.
The defendant’s counsel, Makinde, also urged the court to temper justice with mercy saying the young man had become sober.
“My Lord, the defendant is a first-time offender and we urge your lordship to show him mercy. He is now learning interior decoration and he is a changed person. He has vowed never to do such again and he is sober,” Makinde said.
Justice Taiwo, while delivering her judgement, held that the sentence was to send a message to other youths.
“I have carefully considered the defendant’s allocutus; however, the court is considering the rampancy of this crime among young men, but judgement must be given in order to send a message to other young men out there. I order him to pay the sum of N100,000 or one-year imprisonment,” she said.