An Egor Chief Magistrates’ Court in Benin, Edo on Thursday sentenced 31-year-old Abiodun Ojo to nine years imprisonment for obtaining N3.9 million from a cocoa trader under false pretence.
The Chief Magistrate, Patricia Igho-Braimoh sentenced Ojo after he was found guilty in three out of the four-count charge.
She said the sentence would run concurrently for three years adding that each of the count charges attracted one year in a correctional centre.
Igho-Braimoh however, gave the convict an option to pay a fine of N300,000 for the three-count charge.
Earlier, the Prosecutor, ASP Osayomwanbor Omoruyi, told the court that the convict, between June and July 6, 2019, at Ogboni Street, Off Siluko in Benin, did conspire with two others at large, and fraudulently obtained N437,000 from the complainant, Mercy Ashaka.
According to the prosecutor, Ojo, under false pretence, told the complainant that he was among the owners and representatives of a cocoa farm, located at lletutu Community in Ondo.
The convict took the complainant to the cocoa farm and introduced her to three other men.
Ojo said he was in a position to sell to Ashaka, which he knew was false, and collected N437, 000; 2,550 euros, 2,550 pounds and $2,550, respectively, from Ashaka.
When the complainant requested to know reasons for payment with hard currencies, the convict told her that it was a white man that wanted to buy the cocoa farm, as representative of the family.
The convict asked her to change the Nigeria currency.
Omoruyi stated that the Deed of Transfer would enable Ashaka to take possession of the land and cocoa plantation before the convict and others at large ran away.
He noted that the convict also collected 15 pieces of clothes of six yards each from Ashaka, under the pretence of sharing it to members of their family.
The prosecutor said that the total money and property of the complainant the convict collected was N3.9 million.
He said the offence contravened Sections 516, two-count charge bordering on 419, and 383(1) punishable under Section 390(8)(c) and (9) of the Criminal Code Cap. 48 Vol. 11, Laws of the defunct Bendel State of Nigeria, 1976, now applicable in Edo. (NAN)