Justice Nathaniel Ayo-Emmanuel of the Federal High Court in Osogbo, Osun State, has delivered sentences to five men who were on trial for cyber-stalking and defrauding the former Speaker of the Osun State House of Assembly, Timothy Owoeye, of N38 million.
In 2018, a 13-second nude video of Owoeye became viral on the Internet, in which he was confronted by individuals accusing him of performing a ritual in their community.
The Osun State Police Command apprehended those featured in the video, who were alleged to have exploited the footage to extort around N38 million from Owoeye before releasing the clip on the Internet.
The convicted individuals, Kazeem Agbabiaka, Rasheed Ojonla, Babatunde Oluajo, Adebiyi Kehinde, Femi Oseni, and Oyebanji Oyeniyi, faced charges of conspiracy, advance fee fraud, and cyber-stalking in a trial that began on October 19, 2018.
Justice Ayo-Emmanuel, while delivering the verdict, described the convicts as operating like a web syndicate that caused their victims considerable hardship, and therefore, they deserved no leniency.
He found Agbabiaka, Oyeniyi, Ojonla, and Oluajo guilty of conspiracy and advance fee fraud, sentencing them to five years in prison.
The judge acquitted Ismaila Azeez of the charge related to cyberstalking but found Oseni guilty of the same charge, subsequently sentencing him to five years in prison.