A Special Offences Court sitting in Ikeja, Lagos, has convicted and sentenced a repeat offender, Oluokun Gabriel Adekola, to three years in prison for his involvement in a N12 million fraud connected to a much larger N3.09 billion banking scam.
The judgment was delivered on Tuesday by Justice Rahman Oshodi, who expressed concern over the defendant’s return to criminal activity despite a previous conviction that had resulted in a lengthy prison term.
Adekola was prosecuted by the Lagos Zonal Directorate 1 of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on a one-count amended charge of stealing. He pleaded guilty during the proceedings.
According to the prosecution, the convict worked with accomplices who are still at large in 2025 to conceal the origin of N12 million that was paid into his bank account. Investigations revealed that the money formed part of a massive N3.09 billion fraud carried out through unauthorized access to bank accounts using mobile banking platforms.
The stolen funds were later withdrawn through Point of Sale (POS) operators and converted into cash, demonstrating the increasingly sophisticated methods used by fraud networks.
During the trial, prosecuting counsel E. S. Okongwu presented evidence of Adekola’s criminal history. A certified true copy of a judgment dated July 23, 2020, showed that he had earlier been sentenced to 20 years in prison by a Federal High Court in Ibadan for defrauding a Taiwanese national of $22,300.
Despite this, defence counsel Fabian Nwaforji appealed for leniency, noting that the defendant had already spent four years and six months in custody and had shown remorse for his actions.
However, Justice Oshodi described the offence as money laundering and emphasized the seriousness of the crime, particularly given the defendant’s status as a repeat offender. While acknowledging his guilty plea and willingness to repay part of the stolen funds, the judge ruled that a custodial sentence was necessary to serve both as punishment and a deterrent.
The court subsequently sentenced Adekola to three years’ imprisonment and ordered him to restitute N3.5 million to the affected bank within three months.
The case highlights ongoing concerns among authorities about the persistence of financial crimes and the continued exploitation of banking systems by organized fraud syndicates.
