A serial fraudster, Amusa Azeez Abiodun, who was convicted in 2019 is back in court to face trial on a four count charge of fraud before a Special Offences Court in Ikeja.
Prior to his current travail, the defendant had been convicted under a plea bargain agreement and sentence on June 26, 2019 by Justice Sherifat Solebo to one year imprisonment for his involvement in internet scam.
This time, the defendant is before Justice Oluwatoyin Taiwo and he has pleaded not guilty to allegations of retention of proceeds of a criminal conduct contrary to Section 17 (a) and (b) of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission Establishment Act, 2004.
While reading the charge to him, the defendant denied committing any offence between 24th October, 2020 to 20th August, 2021.
He was said to have retained the control of the sum of N88,187.773.64k in his First Bank account 3085787943, which were proceeds of various internet and cyber crimes.
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According to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission Counsel, Mr. Samuel Daji, the suspect was brought before the court for allegedly being in possession of fraudulent documents contrary to Section 6(8)(b) and 1(3) (d) of the Advance Fee Fraud and Others related offences Act No.14, 2006.
“Amusa Azeez Abiodun on or about the 2nd day of September. 2021 in Lagos within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court with intent to defraud had in your possession document titled “yohoo” printed from your E-mail address jwallac154@yahoo.com linked to your mobile No. 09064668567 where you represented yourself as John Wallace (an American soldier serving in Afghanistan) which representations you knew or ought to have known to be false.
The charge further stated that the defendant was also in possession of fraudulent document contrary to Section 6 (8) (b) and i (3) (d) of the Advance Fee Fraud and others Related Offences Act No. 14 of 2006.
Meanwhile, his counsel, Mr. Olarenwaju Ajanaku informed the court that a bail application had been filed and same has been served on prosecutor, urging court to grant him bail in the most liberal terms.
Subsequently, the court ordered the remand of the serial fraudster in EFCC’s custody until November 4, 2021 for further hearing of the bail application and possible commencement of trial.
