An Ikeja High Court in Lagos on Tuesday
sentenced a first-class graduate from Lead
City University, Ibadan, Olakunle Akanni, for
defrauding an American woman, Diana
Huizenga, of over 12,000 dollars (N1.92
million) through an internet love scam.
Justice Lateef Lawal-Akapo sentenced 23-
year-old Akanni to one year imprisonment
after he pleaded guilty to the offence during
his re-arraignment.
One of his accomplices, Adesina Akinsola,
30, was also given a similar sentence by the
judge.
The judge convicted the duo of two charges
of conspiracy and obtaining money under
false pretence preferred against them.
Lawal-Akapo, however, adjourned the
sentencing of their co-accused, 30-year-old
Dele Oshuntogun, till Nov. 17.
The News Agency of Nigeria reports that
the convicts had entered a plea bargain
with the Economic and Financial Crimes
Commission.
Lawal-Akapo consequently sentenced them
to one year imprisonment on each of the
counts.
He said the sentences were to run
concurrently beginning from the day the
judgment was delivered.
"The first defendant, Akanni, is to pay the
sum of N2 million which is the equivalent of
$12, 820 to the victim (Huizenga), as
restitution.
"Also, the third defendant, Akinsola, is to
pay the sum of N500, 000 to the victim as
restitution," the judge ordered.
He also ordered them to write an
undertaking to be submitted to the EFCC
that they would be of good behaviour upon
their release from prison.
Mrs Zainab Ettuh , the EFCC counsel,
narrating the facts of the case, told the
court that the convicts committed the
offences between December 2010 and
February 2012 in Lagos.
Ettuh said Akanni conspired with others to
obtain various sums of money from the 77-
year-old American woman.
She said Akanni falsely presented himself
to Huizenga as one Robert Lewis, a white
American living in Nigeria, who was in love
with her.
According to her, the convicts used the
"love scam" to fleece the woman and even
invited her to come to Nigeria with $90,000
before they were apprehended.
Ettuh said their offences contravened
Section 419 of the Criminal Code, Laws of
Lagos State, 2003.
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