The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission on Thursday, 8th December, 2016 secured the conviction of three operators of wonder bank, Dayo Peter Bulus (a.k.a Bulus MaiyakiL Oyeleye Adetunji (a.k.a James Adetunji) and Martins Adedayo before Justice Salad Mohammed of High Court 2 Gombe, Gombe State on two Count charge of Conspiracy and Cheating to tune of (N968, 050) Nine Hundred and Sixty Eight Thousand Fifty Naira Only.
The Convicts were arraigned by the EFCC on Thursday 8th December, 2016 before Gombe State High Court no. 2. Upon their arraignment, the convict pleaded guilty to the two count charge against them.
In view of the plea of guilty entered by the 2nd, s= and 4th Accused persons, the prosecution counsel A.M Labaran urge the court to convict them’ based on their plea as there is no better evidence than the confession of an accused person and also cited Section 28 of the Evidence Act, 2011 as Amended.
The complainant alleged that the convicts were using the Company Graceland Real Option Ltd. to lure their victims in Gombe State through a promise of soft loan of 12% interest rate without collateral. The convicts fixed the repayment period of the said loan to 35 weeks with option of weekly or monthly repayment.
The victims were lured to purchase the loan form at the cost of N2,000 (Two Thousand Naira Only) before they can be granted the loan, which very large number of persons key into. It was at the point of purchasing the loan form that some of the victims suspected fraud and alerted the EFCCwhich swung into investigation that led to the arrest of the convicts.
Count one of the charge read 11 That you Graceland Real Option Ltd., Dayo Peter Bulus (a.k.a Bulus Maivaki), Oyeleye Adetunji (a.k.a James Adetunji),
Martins Adedayo being the account officer and agents of Graceland Real Option Ltd, and Kenny Christopher (now at large) sometime in June, 2016 at Gombe, Gombe State within the jurisdiction of this Honorable Court, did conspired amongst yourselves to do an illegal act to wit; fraudulently induces various persons to include Vitalis Okoro, Hauwa’u Adamu, Maryam Bukar Ibrahim, Innocent Nwabodo among other unsuspected victims to deliver monies to the tune of N968,OSO.OO (Nine Hundred and Sixty Eight Thousand Fifty Naira Only) to you under the disguise that upon depositing 20% a customer wish to borrow, the said sum were to be used to access loan from Graceland Real Option Ltd which never happened and thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 96 of the penal code and punishable under Section 97 of the Penal Code.
The presiding Judge Justice Mohammed after hearing submissions from the prosecution and the defense counsel agreed with the submission of the prosecution counsel to convict the 2nd, 3rd and 4th accused persons. However, the court convicted and sentenced them to two (2) months imprisonment with an option of N20,000 fine on count 1 and six (6) months imprisonment with an option of N40, 000 fine on count 2.
