Internet fraudster bags one-year jail term after plea bargain

Justice Oluwatoyin Taiwo of the Lagos State Special Offences
Court has sentenced an Internet fraudster (Yahoo boy), Abraham
Sunday, to one-year imprisonment following a plea bargain.

Justice Taiwo delivered her judgement on Tuesday after Sunday
had pleaded guilty to two counts of obtaining money by false
pretences and possession of fraudulent documents.

Our reporter learnt that Sunday, sometime in 2017, defrauded one
Marlene, whom he met on a social media network, Interpal.

It was gathered that the convict, who used the name, Raymond
Dodson, to defraud Marlene, claimed to be an American citizen
exporting solid minerals.

Sunday was said to have forged the driver’s licence of Texas in
the United States of America to convince Marlene of his
citizenship.

In his statement to the Economic and Financial Crimes
Commission, Sunday said Marlene sent money to him through the
Western Union.

He said, “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.”

However, Sunday had earlier been arraigned on three counts of
possession of fraudulent documents, which he pleaded not guilty
to.

At Tuesday’s proceedings, the convict’s counsel, Z. S. Makinde,
informed the court that his client had exploited the opportunity of
a plea bargain. Thereafter, Sunday was 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, in his allocutus, urged the
court to temper justice with mercy, adding that Sunday had become
remorseful.

“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.