A secondary school leaver,18-year-old Henry Bilabi has been convicted and sentenced by a court in Lagos.
The young lad came under the weight of the law, on Wednesday, after he pleaded guilty to his involvement in crime, of which he defrauded some unsuspecting victims of 50 US dollar.
Justice Ismail Ijelu of a Special Offences Court in Ikeja sentenced him to two years imprisonment, following his plea bargain agreement to the charge of impersonation on Tiktok proffered against him by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission EFCC.
Delivering the judgement, the judge said the court is satisfied that the defendant understands the plea bargain agreement and accordingly, the defendant is hereby found guilty.
“You just finished secondary school and the only thing you know how to do is to commit crime.” Justice Ijelu said.
Pay N1million fine over TikTok fraud
Justice Ijelu however, gave the convict an option of one million naira fine which must be paid within 30 days.
Additionally, the judge ordered that the convict carry out six hours of community service for three months, under the supervision of the officials of the Lagos Custodial Centre.
The convict is also expected to write an undertaken never to go back to crime and his iPhone 7 be forfeited to the Federal Government of Nigeria.
During the court proceedings, EFCC Counsel, Mr. Ahmed Yerima, reviewed facts of the case, he informed the court that the commission received an intelligence report sometimes in October 2023 that some young persons were defrauding innocent citizens around Ajah.
The prosecution counsel also said that the convict was arrested and when his phone was analysed under forensic tools, some fraudulent documents were printed out from his Tiktok account.
The convict confessed to have created a fake Tiktok account where he represented himself as Grace David with username grace_david2 where he benefited 50 US dollars.
“He raised manager cheque of N50,000 in favour of EFCC during the investigation,” Yerima said.
The convict’s extra judicial statement, iPhone7, cheque of N50,000 were admitted into evidence, following no objections from the defence counsel, Ms. Mary Uzodimma.
The convict, in his plea for mercy, had prayed the court to temper justice with mercy.
According to the prosecution, the convict flouted Section 380 of the Criminal Laws of Lagos State, 2015.
