ABEOKUTA – An Abeokuta Magistrates’ Court in Ogun has remanded a 33-year-old man, Olayinka Ogundairo, in prison custody for allegedly defrauding a pastor of N400,000.
According to the prosecutor, Cpl. Moshood Hammed, the accused committed the offence sometime in February at the Saraki Adigbe area in Abeokuta.
Hammed said that the accused defrauded one pastor Jacob Oyedokun of N400,000.00, after tendering false certificates.
“The accused entered the church of Pastor Oyedokun and claimed that he is studying abroad but his benefactor had died.
“He tendered a forged NYSC discharge certificate, a certificate of a Master of Science degree in Anatomy and Physiology from the Council of the Imperial College of Science Technology and Medicine, U.K., and a Kebbi State University of Science and Technology statement of results.
“The accused said he needed money to travel, in order to finish his program abroad and promised to pay oyedokun back, but that was the last that was seen of him, until his subsequent arrest.
“Ogundairo was later caught through the help of a female church member who the accused showed interest in and who was still in contact with him,” Hammed said.
The prosecutor submitted that the offences contravened Sections 383, 390 (9) and 467 of the Criminal Law of Ogun, 2006.
The accused, who pleaded guilty to a three-count charge of fraud, stealing, and tendering forged certificates to defraud, confessed that he had never travelled out of the country.
The accused had no legal representation.
The Magistrate, Mr Martins Akinyemi, ordered that the accused be remanded at Oba Prisons, Abeokuta.
He, thereafter, adjourned the case to December 4, for tendering of facts on the matter.