By Kolawole Omotola
A Special Offences Court sitting in Ikeja, Lagos, has sentenced a repeat offender, Oluokun Gabriel Adekola, to three years’ imprisonment for his involvement in the concealment of N12 million linked to fraud.
The trial judge, Justice Rahman Oshodi, delivered the judgment after the defendant pleaded guilty to an amended charge brought by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
According to the prosecution, Adekola collaborated with accomplices still at large in 2025 to disguise the origin of N12 million paid into his bank account. Investigations revealed that the funds were part of over N3 billion fraudulently obtained from accounts belonging to First City Monument Bank (FCMB) through unauthorised access and mobile banking fraud schemes.
The stolen funds were reportedly converted into cash using Point of Sale (POS) agents to evade detection.
During proceedings, the EFCC presented evidence showing that Adekola had a prior conviction. He was earlier sentenced in 2020 by a Federal High Court in Ibadan for defrauding a foreign national, an offence that earned him a 20-year jail term.
At the resumed hearing, prosecution counsel tendered a certified copy of the earlier judgment, urging the court to consider the defendant’s criminal history. The prosecution also requested that the convict refund N3.5 million to the complainant.
Defence counsel pleaded for leniency, noting that the defendant had shown remorse and had already spent over four years in custody before the conclusion of the current trial.
In his ruling, Justice Oshodi described the offence as a case of money laundering and emphasised that the convict was a repeat offender. However, the court considered his guilty plea and willingness to make restitution in arriving at the sentence.
The judge subsequently sentenced Adekola to three years in prison and ordered him to restitute N3.5 million to FCMB within three months.
The convict had earlier been arraigned on March 16, 2026, by the Lagos Zonal Directorate of the EFCC in Ikoyi, where he pleaded guilty to the charge.
