EKO HOT BLOG reports that a Lagos State High Court sentenced one Tope Peter Obi to one-year imprisonment for possessing fraudulent documents.
The ruling was given by Justice O.A. Okunuga of the Lagos State High Court sitting in Ikeja on Tuesday, November 22, 2022.
Obi was arraigned by the Lagos Zonal Command of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). He was arraigned on a one-count charge bordering on possession of fraudulent documents.
The court ruled that the offence is contrary to Section 318 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State 2011.
“That you, Tope Peter Obi, some time on the 8th day of July, 2022 in Lagos, within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court, had in your possession documents wherein you fraudulently represented yourself as Chris Lane, an American to one Hewitt, a representation of which from the circumstance of this case you knew or reasonably ought to know to be false,” the count reads.
Obi pleaded “guilty” to the one-count charge.
The prosecuting counsel, G.C. Akaogu, gave a review of the facts that detailed how intelligence reports had linked the defendant to the alleged crime.
The convict was arrested and subjected to further investigation.
According to statements made available by the EFFC, statements of the defendant and the items recovered from Obi were also tendered in evidence by the prosecution.
The statement reads: “Following the guilty plea of the defendant and the evidence presented before the court, the trial Judge found him guilty as charged.”
“The defence counsel, Bisola Oshundunmade, pleaded with the court to temper justice with mercy.”
“After reviewing all the evidence and submissions of both parties, Justice Okunuga sentenced the defendant to one-year imprisonment, with an option of fine of N500,000.
“Items recovered from him, including iPhone X, were ordered forfeited to the Federal Government.”
It added that “the defendant was also ordered to sign an undertaking with the EFCC to be of good behaviour and never to engage in any form of economic and financial crimes within and outside the shores of Nigeria.”
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