A Federal Capital Territory (FCT) High Court sitting in Maitama has remanded one Osahon Scott, for allegedly posing as a United States military officer to perpetrate online fraud.
This followed the suspect’s arraignment by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on Tuesday before Justice Umar Bature.
According to a statement from the anti-graft agency, Scott was charged with an amended count bordering on cheating.
READ ALSO: At Least 24 Victims Rescued From Rubble Of Collapsed Building, Nine Dead
The count read: “That you, Osahon Scott (aka Gen. Sgt. Major John Rossi) sometime in 2018 in Abuja within the Abuja Judicial Division of the Federal Capital Territory High Court, did attempt to commit cheating by posing as United States Gen. Sgt. Major John Rossi, an American soldier deployed to Afghanistan on peacekeeping mission and fraudulently induced one Li Sufung to deliver the sum of 20,000 Yuan (Twenty Thousand Yuan). That the money is payment for cost of non-inspection of certificate, a claim which you knew to be false and thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 320(a) of the Penal Code Law Cap 532 Laws of the Federation (1990) Abuja and punishable under Section 95 of the same Act.”
The defendant was said to have pleaded “guilty” to the charge.
The EFCC explained this was based on a plea bargain document signed with the prosecution on March 4, 2019, and brought to court, pursuant to Section 270 of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act, ACJA 2015.
The prosecuting counsel, Deborah Ademu-Eteh, thereafter, urged the court to convict and sentence him accordingly, while considering the plea bargain.
On his part, the defence counsel Ochumba Kingsley pleaded with the court to temper justice with mercy.
“Put into consideration that the defendant has been consistent with his custody terms; his health status of being a peptic ulcer patient; a surviving son of a single mother, an aging grandfather and a young man with a bright future ahead who is remorseful of his actions,” Kingsley told the court.
Giving his ruling, Justice Bature adjourned the matter till Tuesday next week for sentencing and ordered that the defendant be remanded in Kuje Prison.
Ochumba applied for administrative bail for his client, but it was not granted by the court.
