Police Arraign 84-year-old Man over Alleged N20.7m Fraud

Wale Igbintade

Operatives of the Police Special Fraud Unit (PSFU) yesterday arraigned an 84-year-old man, Fasasi Odubola Adebambo, in Lagos over alleged N20.7 million fraud.

Adebambo was arraigned before Justice Akintayo Aluko of the Federal High Court in Lagos alongside one Ojobaro Lawal Kayode in a charge marked FHCL/230c/2021 bordering on alleged conspiracy and fraud.

The duo were alleged to have obtained the said amount from Dr. and Mrs. Mbeledogu, under false pretence of selling a property at Maryland area of Lagos State, to them.

PSFU prosecutor, Henry Obiaze, told the court that the two defendants allegedly committed the offences between January and February 2020.

He stated that the offences committed by the defendants are contrary to Section 8 (a) and 1(1)(a) of the Advance Fee Fraud and other Fraud Related Offences Act, 2006, and punishable under Section 3 of the same Act.

However, the defendants pleaded not guilty to the charges.

Following their plea of not guilty, the prosecutor asked the court for a trial date, and urged the court to remand them in the custody of the Nigerian Correctional Services (NCoS) pending the conclusion of the charges against them.

But defence counsel, Yinka Farombi, while not objecting to the trial date as requested by the prosecutor, however, pleaded with the court not to remand the defendants due to the age of the first defendant, till when he would file their bail applications.

Farombi also promised to produce the defendants in court till the determination of the charges filed against them.

In his ruling, Justice Aluko granted the defence counsel’s request and released the two defendants to their lawyer.

The matter has been adjourned till June 28, 2022, for hearing of their bail applications and trial.

The charges against the two defendants read: “That you Fasasi Odubola Adebambo and Ojobaro Lawal Kayode sometimes between the months of January and February 2020 at Maryland within the jurisdiction of this court did conspire together to commit felony to wit; obtaining money by false pretence and thereby committed an offence punishable under Section 8 (a) of the Advance Fee Fraud and other Fraud Related Offences Act, 2006.

“That you, Fasasi Odubola Adebambo and Ojobaro Lawal Kayode, sometimes between January and February, 2020 at Maryland within the jurisdiction of this court did by false pretence and with intent to defraud obtain the sum of Twenty Million, Seven Hundred Thousand Naira (N20,700,000) from Dr. and Mrs. Mbeledogu on the pretence that you have a property at Maryland which you wanted to sell to them and which you also knew to be false, and thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 1(1)(a) and punishable under Section 3 of the Advance Fee Fraud and other Fraud Related Offences Act, 2006.”