Justice Ismail Ijelu of a Lagos State High Court sitting in Ikeja has convicted and sentenced a man, Obinna Kingsley Anijiofor, to nine years’ imprisonment for stealing and issuing dud cheques.
The court sentenced Anijiofor after finding him guilty as charged by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on an amended three-count charge involving the sum of N9,500,000.
Anijiofor was arraigned on February 10, 2025, for allegedly stealing N9,500,000 and $32,000, which formed part of the $91,000 paid to him by Obinna Kingsley Onwubuariri for the import of goods.
According to the EFCC, the funds were entrusted to Anijiofor for the importation of goods, but he dishonestly converted part of the money to his personal use.
He was alleged to have issued a cheque without sufficient funds in his account.
Anijiofor pleaded not guilty, and the prosecution counsel, M. K. Bashir, called three witnesses, tendered several documents in evidence, while the defence called two witnesses.
However, while delivering judgment on Wednesday, Justice Ijelu found the defendant guilty on all three counts. He sentenced him to two years’ imprisonment on count one for issuing a dishonoured cheque (without an option of fine).
On count two, he was also sentenced to two years’ imprisonment for issuing dud cheques and five years’ imprisonment on count three for theft, without an option of fine for the three counts charged.
Justice Ijelu ordered that the sentences be served concurrently, amounting to a total of nine years’ imprisonment.
The court also ordered restitution of $32,000 to the complainant, Obinna Kingsley Onwubuariri.
In other news, a hit-and-run taxi driver on Wednesday knocked down an old man at Isale-Ake, near Cathedral Diocese of Saint Peter, in Abeokuta South Local Government Area, Ogun State.
Eyewitnesses’ accounts said that the man was hit in the middle of the road by the speeding vehicle while trying to cross over to the other side of the road.
A witness, Lukmon Babatunde, a member of the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW), Ake branch, explained that immediately the taxi driver hit the man, he alighted from his vehicle as if to help the man, but later sped off.
Babatunde said that he and some good Samaritans went to carry the old man away from the middle of the road and laid him at the side of the road so that incoming vehicles would not run over him.
“We were sitting here and we heard how the taxi hit the old man, and we thought the driver would park and save the old man, but he sped off. We would have taken him to the hospital, but we feared.
“It took the efforts of me and some people to carry him from the middle of the road so that other vehicles would not run over his body”, he said.
Another witness, identified as Adedoja Hassan, said that the windscreen of the taxi got broken immediately the driver hit the old man and ran away.
She said that the incident occurred two hours ago and was surprised that the victim was still breathing.
“The old man was knocked down by the taxi, and the taxi driver waited a bit, and when he thought the man was not breathing, he sped off. People would have taken him to the hospital, but they were afraid the man might give up while helping him,” she noted.