Jailed couple sentenced to fresh 10 years’ imprisonment for property fraud

The Lagos State Special Offences Court in Ikeja has sentenced convicted couple, Harry Uyanwanne and Oluwakemi Odia, also referred to as Kristein Uyanwanne, to at the least 10 years’ imprisonment every for fraud involving N67.6 million.

Trial choose Mojisola Dada delivered the judgement on Monday and ordered the defendants to refund the to the petitioner, Olusola Odemuyiwa.

The couple had been prosecuted by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on prices of conspiracy, stealing and acquiring cash by false pretence. EFCC spokesperson Dele Oyewale disclosed this in a press release on Monday.

They had been discharged on a separate cost of forgery.

The prices arose from the alleged fraudulent sale of a property at No. 19, Murtala Mohammed Way, Ebute Meta, Oyingbo, Lagos, belonging to beneficiaries of the property of the late Moshood Babatunde Odemuyiwa.

The prosecution alleged that the defendants offered the property in 2010 for N16 million, falsely claiming that they had the authority of the property’s beneficiaries to promote it.

According to the EFCC, the defendants knew that they had no such authority however offered themselves as authorised to get rid of the property.

The couple pleaded not responsible to the fees. During the trial, prosecution counsel, Fadeke Giwa, known as three witnesses and tendered a number of paperwork, whereas the defence known as one witness.

In her judgement, Ms Dada held that the prosecution had proved its case past cheap doubt.

She sentenced the defendants to three years’ imprisonment for conspiracy, one 12 months for stealing and 10 years for acquiring cash by false pretence, with out the choice of wonderful.

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EFCC’s assertion didn’t disclose if the choose ordered the sentences to run concurrently or consecutively. The jail time for every of the couple will quantity to 14 years, if the sentences had been ordered to run consecutively, and 10 years if ordered to run concurrently.

But the assertion stated the choose ordered that Uyanwanne’s sentence be suspended till he’s apprehended.

The conviction just isn’t the couple’s first encounter with the court docket over fraud allegations. In December 2024, the identical court docket sentenced Mr Uyanwanne to 10 years’ imprisonment and Ms Odia to six years over a separate N52 million fraud involving the sale of a property in Magodo, Lagos. The sentences had been ordered to run concurrently.

In that case, the court docket additionally ordered the closure and deregistration of Temple International Church, which was a co-defendant, and directed the couple to pay N31 million in restitution to the complainant.