A businesswoman, Blessing Adanu, was on Monday convicted by an Ikeja Special Offences Court sitting in Lagos State for defrauding a woman of N47.6m on the pretext of supplying her agricultural produce in the state.
Justice Mojisola Dada convicted Adanu on two counts of obtaining money by false pretences and stealing preferred against her by the Economic Financial Crimes Commission.
Dada held that the evidence before the court including statements made by the convict during interrogations proved all the essential ingredients of obtaining by false pretences and stealing.
The judge, however, dismissed the argument of the defence that the charges emanated from contractual disputes that were civil.
Adanu had traded under the name of the Emerald Multipurpose Cooperative Society when she defrauded her victim in a purported agribusiness scheme.
Delivering the judgment, Dada said, “As noted by the prosecution, most economic and financial crimes arose from transactions that had a semblance of contractual transactions.
“But along the line, a lot of factors came in to derail the smooth sail when the heart of man begins to dialogue with the devil to outsmart another person and he succumbs to it.
“The defendant’s oral testimony in court that the agribusiness was affected by flooding and Fulani herdsmen attack was an afterthought. She wanted to be living big at the expense of other people without counting the cost.
“Although the defendant seems to have absconded, having jumped bail graciously granted her by this court, the truth is that she cannot run away from justice.”
Dada said from the foregoing, the evidence before the court clearly showed that the case against the defendant had been proved beyond every reasonable doubt on the two counts of obtaining the sum of N47.6m under false pretences.
“I hereby declare the defendant guilty as charged on the two counts,” Dada said.
Meanwhile, the convict’s sentencing was suspended in accordance with Sections 321 and 352 (5) of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act, 2015, in conjunction with Section 278 (1) of the ACJ Law 2015, pending when she would be apprehended and brought before the court.
Dada, thereafter, issued a bench warrant for Adanu’s arrest and ordered that the EFCC should declare her wanted.
