The Lagos division of the Court of Appeal has affirmed the 10-year imprisonment sentence of an Ikeja High Court on ex-court registrar Oluronke Rosolu for defrauding a former chief of army staff Lt.-Gen. Ishaya Bamaiyi of $330,000.
Rosolu has lost her appeal and will now stay 10 years in jail
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) said in a statement released on Friday, February 24 and signed by its spokesperson Wilson Uwujaren that in a judgement delivered today, the Court of Appeal dismissed her appeal and affirmed the decision of the lower court
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Recall that Rosolu had been convicted by Justice Lateef Lawal-Akapo of the Lagos High Court, Ikeja on the two-count charge of conspiracy and obtaining money by false pretences brought against her by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, on December 21, 2015.
But Rosolu, through her lawyer filed a notice of appeal on December 30, 2015, challenging her conviction. The appeal court has now ruled.
EFCC said in the statement that Rosulu had aided Fred Ajudua, a one-time Lagos socialite, to defraud Bamiayi when they were both remanded at the Kirikiri Maximum Prison, Lagos for different offences.
The prosecution had told Justice Lawal-Akapo that Ajudua made a false representation to Bamaiyi that the $330,000 was the professional fees for the law firm of Afe Babalola and Co. to facilitate Bamaiyi’s release from prison, a claim which the firm denied.
During the trial, Rosulu had denied going to the Kirikiri Maximum Prisons or knowing Ajudua. However, counsel to the prosecution presented a number of witnesses who testified that Rosulu went to the prison on different occasions to collect the money from Bamaiyi on behalf of Ajudua.
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While delivering her judgement, Justice Lawal-Akapo said: “The representation that she never collected $330,000 from the complainant is deceptive; the accused could not provide a strong alibi for her whereabouts when the fraud occurred.
“I find the accused guilty as charged. As a registrar of court, the accused should have been an image maker of the judiciary, but she acted in the contrary.
‘‘On count one, I sentence the accused to 10 years imprisonment and on count two I sentence the accused to 10 years imprisonment. “Both sentences are to run concurrently.”
Meanwhile, the attorney-general of the federation and minister of Justice Abubakar Malami SAN has revealed that the anti-corruption war of the federal government has helped Nigeria to recover a whopping sum of N57.9 billion and $666.676million.
Malami revealed this in Abuja on Thursday, February 23 while defending the justice ministry’s 2017 budget before the Senate Committee on Judiciary, Human Rights and Legal Matters at the National Assembly Complex.
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