Justice Oladele Adisa of a magistrate court sitting in Iyaganku, Ibadan, has sentenced two siblings and a 38-year-old man to 19 years imprisonment each for obtaining money under false pretence.
Justice Adisa didn’t give the convicts any option of fine.
The accused persons, who were said to be land speculators, are Jelili Amoo, 37, who was said to be at large; his elder brother Amidu Amoo, 50; and Muritala Adeyemi, 38.
The magistrate ruled that the accused persons were guilty of all the eight counts levelled against them and sentenced them to three years imprisonment each on count one and two years each on counts two to eight. He, however, said the sentences would run concurrently.
The prosecutor, Mr Opeyemi Olagunju, had told the court that the accused persons and others now at large, between 2010 and 2011, conspired to steal by obtaining the sum of N6 million from one Mrs Adetoun Oladeji, on the pretence they would sell to her eight acres of land situated at Ologun-Eru, Eleyele, Ibadan.
Olagunju further said the accused persons and others now at large obtained another sum of N3.5m on the pretence they would sell to Mrs Oladeji some acres of land in another location at Ologun-Eru.
The prosecutor also said that the accused persons, on June 24, 2011 at Iwo Road, Academy, Ibadan, obtained the sum of N2.5m from the
complainant on the pretence they would sell to her five acres of land, which they said belonged to one Raimi Adeleke in another location in Ibadan.
According to the prosecutor, the accused persons also obtained the sum of N1m from Mrs Oladeji on the same day and time, claiming it was their commission on the said land.
Olagunju made an application to the effect that the name of the first accused person, Jelili Amoo, should be deleted from the charge pending
his arrest since he had absconded from court.
Counsel to the complainant, Mr Chima Onah, expressed satisfaction
with the judgment which, he said, had been long awaited.
“We have been on this case since 2012. Most times, the convicts would
jump bail and it would take many months before they would be
re-arrested and taken back to court. The matter had been dragging in
the last seven years but today, we have been able to obtain judgment.
“We also thank God that Mama (Mrs Adetoun Oladeji) has been
vindicated with the judgment. It is now clear that Mama did not
defraud anybody. Rather, she was the one that was defrauded. It is
therefore a thing of joy that justice has been served,” Onah said.
Mrs Oladeji expressed joy about the judgment, saying she had once
been dragged to the Federal Criminal investigation Bureau (FCIB),
Alagbon, Lagos, by an Ibadan-based popular gospel singer who thought
she had defrauded her on the controversial landed property.
