Love Scam; Court Convict Corps Member, Other

A Kwara State High Court sitting in Ilorin on Thursday sentenced a member of the National Youth Service Corps, Sam Abiola, and one Adebiyi Sodiq, to various terms of imprisonment for attempted cheating and engaging in a love scam.

The duo, who were arrested during a raid in September 2020 at a school in Offa, Kwara State, were arraigned last Monday before the court by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission. 

 Abiola, 26, currently serving in Kogi State, and Sodiq, 18, were arraigned on separate charges. While one count charge was preferred against Abiola, Sodiq was prosecuted on four counts.

 The charge against Abiola read, “That you, Sam Abiola (Missie Bonie), sometime between July 2019 and September 2019, in Ilorin, within the jurisdiction of this honourable court, did cheat by impersonation when you pretended to be one Missie Bonie, a white female with Gmail account missiebo271@gmail.com, and fraudulently deceived one Rick to send $550 to you through gift card after you made him believe you were in love with him, thereby committing an offence contrary to Section 321 of the Penal Code and punishable under Section 324 of the same Penal Code.”

 Both of them pleaded guilty to the charges. Justice Adenike Akinpelu, in her judgment, sentenced Abiola to six months’ imprisonment with an option of fine of N100,000, and sentenced Sodiq to six months’ imprisonment on each of counts 1, 2, 3 and 4, with N100,000 as option of fine on each of the four counts.

 The judge ordered that the convicts’ phones and laptops used to perpetrate the crime be forfeited to the Federal Government of Nigeria