First-class university graduate jailed for N1.92m internet fraud

A graduate of Lead City University, Ibadan, who
passed out with 1st-class honors has been
sentenced to one-year imprisonment after
pleading guilty to a two-count charge of
conspiracy and obtaining money under false
pretences.
Olakunle Akanni was sentenced yesterday Nov.
4th at the Ikeja High Court in Lagos for
defrauding a 77 year-old American woman, Diana
Huizenga, of over 12,000 dollars through an
internet love scam.
One of his accomplices, Adesina Akinsola, 30,
was also given a similar sentence by the judge
but adjourned the sentencing of their co-
accused, 30-year-old Dele Oshuntogun, till Nov.
17.
There are reports that the convicts entered a
plea bargain with the Economic and Financial
Crimes Commission (EFCC). Lawal-Akapo
consequently sentenced them to one year
imprisonment on each of the counts.
He said the sentences were to run concurrently
beginning from the day the judgment was
delivered.
“The first defendant, Olakunle Akanni, is to pay
the sum of N2 million which is the equivalent of
$12, 820 to the victim (Huizenga), as restitution.
Also, the third defendant, Akinsola, is to pay the
sum of N500, 000 to the victim as restitution,”
the judge ordered.
He also ordered them to write an undertaken to
be submitted to the EFCC that they would be of
good behaviour upon their release from prison
custody.
Mrs Zainab Ettuh , the EFCC counsel, narrating
the facts of the case, told the court that the
convicts committed the offences between
December 2010 and February 2012 in Lagos.
She said Olakunle Akanni falsely presented
himself to Huizenga as one Robert Lewis, a
white American living in Nigeria, who was in love
with her.
According to her, "the convicts used the “love
scam” to fleece the woman and even invited her
to come to Nigeria with $90,000 before they
were apprehended".
Mrs Zainab Ettuh said their offences contravened
Section 419 of the Criminal Code, Laws of Lagos
State, 2003.
Source: NAN