First-class undergraduate bags 13-year-jail term in Ondo

A Business Administration final year student of a private university located in Ondo State, Fisayo Adetoro has been found guilty of impersonation, forgery and money laundering, and sentenced to cumulative 13 years in prison and N1,000,000.

Adetoro, who was said to be a first-class candidate on 4.5 Cumulative Grade Point Aggregate (CGPA), was convicted by Justice Folashade Olubanjo of the Federal High Court 1, Akure, in a criminal case filed against him by the Ibadan Zonal Office of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

The student was originally arraigned on January 18, 2017, on a six-count charge, but pleaded not guilty to all the charges.

According to the charge sheet, the allegations include falsely representing himself to be Bawa Mohammed Sanni to defraud his victims to the tune of thousands of United States Dollars.

He was also accused of using the fake name to register for a Nigerian Driver’s License bearing his photograph, as well as laundering sums running to millions of naira.

Represented by Dr. Ben Ubi and Sanusi Galadanchi, the anti-graft agency called five witnesses, including two victims of his money laundering activities, to prove its case, while the accused called three witnesses.

After evaluating the arguments on both sides, the presiding judge found Adetoro guilty in four of the six charges and was consequently sentenced to two years for falsification of documents (Count 2) and three years for uttering official documents (Counts 3 and 4).

The court sentenced him to five years imprisonment with a fine of N1, 000,000 for money laundering (Count 6). The jail terms are to run concurrently.

However, Justice Olubanjo considered the convict for a suspended sentence of six months of community service.

The judge yielded to his counsel’s pleadings, which were premised on his health, academic standing and the fact that he had refunded all the money he fraudulently collected.