Court Jails Fashion Designer for Defrauding EFCC Officer in Kwara

Eric Patrick

Justice Abimbola Awogboro of the Federal High Court sitting in Ilorin, Kwara State, has sentenced a 27-year-old fashion designer Haruna Musa Tolani to 12 months imprisonment for impersonating and defrauding Callitus Egwuonwu.

Reports indicate that Egwuonwu is an investigating officer with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Ilorin Zonal Directorate.

EFCC disclosed this in a statement on Friday, stating that Tolani, who is an indigene of Ilorin East Local Government Area of Kwara State, was initially arraigned on a two-count charge bordering on impersonation and cybercrime on January 28, 2025 and pleaded not guilty.

He later changed his plea to guilty after overwhelming evidence was presented by counsel to the EFCC, Sesan Ola.

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The count charge read, “That you Haruna Musa Tolani in August,2024 at Ilorin within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court with intent to defraud, misrepresented yourself via electronic message sent through unstructured supplementary service data (USSD) to Access Bank Plc. With respect to account number 0022643389, property of Mr Callistus Egwuonwu, with which you purchased N20000.00 worth of MTN data which resulted into loss to the owner of the account and you thereby commit an offence contrary to and punishable under Section 14(2) of the cybercrime (Prohibition and Prevention) Act, 2015.”

In his judgment, Justice Awogboro imposed a 12-month custodial sentence on Tolani with an option of a fine of N200,00.

The court also ordered the forfeiture of a First Bank manager’s cheque of N200,000 in favour of the victim and directed the convict to restitute the sum of N20,000, the amount he fraudulently obtained.