A Federal High Court sitting in Lagos has sentenced a Nollywood producer, Olajide Kareem, alias Seun Egbegbe, to seven years’ imprisonment with hard labour after convicting him of fraud.
However, the convict was freed having served the prison term.
The 45-year-old was arraigned by the police on February 10, 2017, after allegedly obtaining N39m, $90,000, and £12,550, by false pretenses from no fewer than 40 Bureau De Change operators in different parts of Lagos between 2015 and 2017.
He was accused of swindling the BDC operators by claiming that he had naira to change to foreign currencies.
The ex-convict, alongside one Oyekan Ayomide, was arraigned before Justice Oluremi Oguntoyinbo on 36 counts bordering on advance fee fraud.
The charge sheet was amended twice, with the counts eventually increased to 40, and three other defendants – Lawal Kareem, Olalekan Yusuf and Muyideen Shoyombo – added, making the defendants five.
The five defendants entered pleas of not guilty to the first and second counts, while Egbegebe, the first defendant, pleaded not guilty to the remaining 38 counts.
The film-maker, who financed the production of several Yoruba films under his Ebony Films Productions imprint, was, however, unable to fulfill the bail conditions granted him.
Delivering judgment on Tuesday, Justice Oluremi Oguntoyinbo convicted Egbegbe and sentenced him to seven years’ imprisonment after finding him guilty of one of the 40 counts filed against him by the police.
The judge, however, freed him and the four other defendants.
Justice Oguntoyinbo declared that 39 of the 40 counts crumbled because of the lack of witnesses to substantiate their claims.
In addition, the judge said the police tampered with the money recovered from the suspects and ruled that all the money recovered from Egbegbe as evidence be returned to him.
“Having considered the entirety of the circumstances and taken judicial notice of the allocutus, I hereby sentence the first defendant (Egbegbe) to imprisonment for a term of seven years with hard labour only in respect of count 19 of the amended charge.
“The term is to begin from the very first date the first defendant was detained in police custody and/or remanded in prison, whichever comes first. I so hold,” the judge said.
