Justice Nicholas Oweibo of the Federal High Court in Lagos has convicted and sentenced the trio of Alabi Adekunle, Taofeek Bakare and Segun Olawepo to two years imprisonment each for currency counterfeiting.
Justice Oweibo jailed the convicts after they pleaded guilty to a four-count charge of counterfeiting the sum of USD 269.000 brought against them by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
The convicts had initially pleaded not guilty to the charge when they were first arraigned in March 2023.
Following their plea, the prosecutor, George Akaogu, called an operative of the EFCC, Okara Godwin to review the facts of the case.
Godwin informed the court that the convicts were arrested sometime in January 2023, adding that upon their arrest, they wrote their statements, investigations were conducted, and forensic evidence was documented.
Akaogu then applied to tender, in evidence, their extrajudicial statements, admission of confessional statement forms, counterfeit notes and forensic investigation documents from the EFCC laboratory, which the court admitted.
The defence counsel, Mercy Ozumobi pleaded for leniency, stating that the convicts were ignorant and were used by scrupulous persons.
After listening to the lawyers, Justice Oweibo sentenced the convicts to two years imprisonment each, effective from the January, when they were arrested, but he gave them an option of a N500,000 fine.
