A Lagos High Court presided over by Justice
Christopher Balogun yesterday admitted as
exhibits, three laptops and two internet modems
tendered as evidence in a case of internet fraud
and obtaining money by pretext filed against
suspected fraudsters (a.k.a Yahoo boys). The
suspects, Chris Nwaigwe (34), Farouk Balogun
(28), Fawas Animashaun (29), Damilola Ali (28)
and Olasunkanmi Banire (27), were first
arraigned on October 31, 2012 on a 21-count
charge bordering on forgery, obtaining money
by pretext and internet fraud.
The defendants were alleged to have on April 27,
2012 within the Ikeja Judicial Division, with
intent to defraud, conspired to obtain
$210,000,00 equivalent of N53,577.597 million
from one Kabiru Sanni. While admitting the
exhibits, Balogun dismissed the objection of the
defence counsel and ordered that items be
taken as evidence.
Earlier, a prosecution witness, Babatunde Shittu
of the Advance Fee Fraud, AFF, department of
the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission,
EFCC, told the court that the defendants were
arrested following a petition written by one
Kabiru Sanni, a bureau de change operator.
Narrating how the defendants were arrested,
Shittu said: “We told Mr. Sanni to set up a
meeting with the first defendant at one eatery in
Lekki where we arrested him and took him to his
house at No 13, Bamgbala Street, Elegushi,
Lagos. “When we got to his resident, we
recovered two laptops, two internet modems
and a laptop charger which we took to our office
along with the defendants.”