Date: 2021-01-21

Justice Adenike Akinpelu of the Kwara State High Court on Wednesday convicted a 29-year-old internet fraudster, Ademola Adebukola alias "Holy Ghost" to one-year imprisonment on four counts of cheating and attempt to cheat.

The judge convicted and sentenced the defendant to six months imprisonment on each of the counts after he pleaded guilty to the charges brought by the Ilorin Zonal Office of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC.

"Having pleaded guilty to the charges, you are hereby jailed for six months imprisonment for each of the counts said.

The court also ordered the forfeiture of the convict’s iPhone 5 and Dell Laptop, being the instruments used to perpetrate the crime, to the Federal Government.

The charges against the convict read:

"That you, Ademola Adebukola, sometime in 2018, at Ilorin, within the Judicial Division of the Kwara State High Court while acting as Blackmore G. Scott a.k.a Holy Ghost with email address holyghost643@gmail.com did attempt to cheat one Sherri Reed by fraudulently inducing her to deliver the sum of $3,500 (Three Thousand, Five Hundred United States Dollars) to you under the guise of being in a romantic relationship with her and in need of money to clear goods at the Seaport and thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 320 of the Penal Code and punishable under Section 322 of the Penal Code"

The second count reads: "That you, Ademola Adebukola, sometime in July 2020, at Ilorin, within the Judicial Division of the Kwara State High Court while acting as David Frenchman with email address msccruiseworld@gmail.com did attempt to cheat by impersonation, when you presented yourself to one Wanda Smith of wsmith1166@yahoo.com as being a Caucasian male in a romantic relationship with her, a representation you knew to be false and thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 95 of the Penal Code and punishable under Section 324 of the same Penal Code. "