A woman and her son have been convicted by Justice A.A Bello of a Kaduna State High Court in Nigeria for giving the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) false information about N5.6 million used in playing sports betting. The mother and son pleaded guilty to the offence, and were each sentenced to seven years imprisonment by the court. The Kaduna Zonal Command of the EFCC had taken the duo to court.
In a statement released on Wednesday, the EFCC said that Oluwayemisi and her son had spent N5.6m on sports betting and submitted a false petition to the agency alleging that the money was fraudulently withdrawn from their account and transferred to a sports betting account without their knowledge. The EFCC said the defendants were found guilty of wilfully giving false information to the agency in a bid to mislead the investigation.
The separate counts against the defendants read, “That you, Oluwayemisi Samuel (F) and Hezekiah Samuel (now at large) sometime in March, 2023 in Kaduna State within the jurisdiction of the Honourable Court, committed an offence to wit; wilfully gave false information to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, which information was used to carry out investigation on your complaint to the Commission, which information you knew to be false and thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 16(1) of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (Establishment) Act, 2004 and punishable under Section 16(2) of the same Act.
“That you, Joshua Samuel (M) and Hezekiah Samuel (now at large) sometime in March, 2023 in Kaduna State within the jurisdiction of the Honourable Court, committed an offence to wit; wilfully gave false information to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, which information was used to carry out investigation on your complaint to the Commission, which information you knew to be false and thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 16(1) of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (Establishment) Act, 2004 and punishable under Section 16(2) of the same Act.”
Justice Bello convicted and sentenced the defendants to seven years imprisonment each with an option of N150,000 fine.