Court Sentences Five Community Leaders to Five Years Imprisonment for Blackmailing Osun Ex-Speaker with ‘Ritual Video’
Five individuals who blackmailed and defrauded the former Speaker of the Osun State House of Assembly, Timothy Owoye, have been sentenced to five years imprisonment each by a Federal High Court in Osogbo.
The convicts, Kazeem Agbabiaka, Femi Oyebode, Abdul-Rasheed Ojonla, Babatunde Oluajo, and Adebiyi Kehinde, were involved in a scam that extorted N38 million from the ex-speaker and exposed his nude video on the internet in 2018.
The video, which went viral online, showed Owoye, who represented Ilesa East at the State Assembly, being confronted by a group of people who accused him of performing a ritual bath in a market square for his political success in the 2019 General elections.
The accused persons, along with Oyebanji Oyeniyi and Ismaila Azeez, were arraigned in court on October 19th, 2018, on charges of conspiracy, advance fee fraud, and cyberstalking, among others.
During the trial, the prosecution presented 57 exhibits, such as flash drives and bank statements from Guarantee Trust Bank, WEMA Bank, and First Bank, among others, to prove their case.
On Tuesday, Justice Emmanuel Ayoola found five of the accused guilty of the charges and sentenced them to five years imprisonment each. Oyeniyi was discharged and acquitted of all the charges, while Azeez was absent from the court.
Justice Ayoola held that the convicts had not only defrauded the former Speaker of N38 million but had also maliciously posted his nude video on the internet with the intention to subject him to public ridicule.
He said that the convicts had violated the dignity and privacy of the victim and deserved to be punished accordingly.
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