An air-conditioner repairer, Pelumi Oluwatimileyin Sunday and three others have been convicted for offences bordering on cybercrime by a Federal High Court sitting in Ilorin, the Kwara State capital. The three others are Uloko George Ojonugwa, a student of Federal University, Lokoja; Godspower Blessing and Blessing Tope Abejide.

The quartet were prosecuted on separate charges by the Ilorin Zonal Command of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) before Justice Muhammed Sani of the Federal High Court sitting in Ilorin.

They all pleaded guilty to their respective charges, following which Innocent Mbachie and Sesan Ola, who prosecuted the cases on behalf of the EFCC reviewed the facts of the cases and tendered the extra-judicial statements of the defendants, phones and laptops recovered from them at the point of arrest and all the fraudulent messages printed from their devices, which the court admitted in evidence.

The prosecuting counsel therefore urged the court to convict the defendants in line with the guilty plea entered by them, their confessional statements and all the exhibits tendered. Justice Sani in his judgment said the court was satisfied that the prosecution had proved its cases beyond reasonable doubt and pronounced the accused guilty.

Consequently, the judge sentenced Pelumi to three years imprisonment with option of N200,000 fine, while Godspower bagged two years imprisonment with option of N324,817.

The court also ordered that the phones, which the convict used to perpetrate the crime be forfeited to the Federal Government.