Admin l Thursday, October 13, 2022
IKOYI, Lagos, Nigeria – The image of the Nigeria Police came under attack on Tuesday, when Justice Oluremi Oguntoyinbo declared that from available evidence, “it is crystal clear that the Nigeria Police tampered with the various sums of money collected from Olajide Kareem, alias Seun Egbegbe and Oyekan Ayomide.
“From the avalanche of evidence before this Honourable Court, it is crystal clear the Nigerian Police tampered with the various sums of money collected from the 1st & 2nd Defendants.
“The serial number of the various sum of money was not recorded by the Exhibit Keeper nor the Exhibit Ledger tendered before this Honourable Court”, the judge said.
The judge made the pronouncement while sentencing the Nollywood filmmaker to 7 years imprisonment ‘with hard labour’.
He was convicted on one of the 44-count charge filed against him by the police. The judge however released him since he has been in detention for 57 months since 2017 and has exceeded his prison terms in detention. Starconnectmedia.com reports that eight months is equal one year in prison calendar.
Justice Oguntoyinbo found filmmaker guilty on count 19 of the 44-count charge filed against him and set him free. The judge also freed the four other defendants.
“Having considered the entirety of the circumstances and taking judicial notice of the allocutus, I hereby sentence the 1st Defendant (Kareem) to imprisonment for a term of Seven {7} years with hard labour, only in respect of Count 19 of the Amended Charge.
“The term is to begin from the very first date the 1st Defendant was detained in police custody and/or remanded in prison, whichever comes first. I so hold. This is to send a clear message to all and sundry, the young and as well as the old, the unknown and the famous that, regardless of the number of days a crime goes unpunished, the law would definitely take its course in due course.
“Most importantly, the prosecution witnesses’ contradictory testimonies have failed to satisfy the exact various sums of money contained in the majority of the unviable and unsupported counts of charges filed against the 1st Defendant. I so hold.
The duo were later joined by Lawal Kareem, Olalekan Yusuf and Muyideen Shoyombo on 44 count charge. The filmmaker was remanded on February 10, 2017, after he allegedly obtained money by false pretence from no fewer than 40 Bureaus De Change, BDC, operators in different parts of Lagos.
The convict, Seun Egbegbe was accused of swindling the BDC operators by claiming that he had naira to exchange into foreign currencies and vice versa. The money in question include $90,000, £12,550 among others.
