Graduating student jailed for porn, fraud

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A final-year student of Computer Science, Ridwan Soyombo, has been jailed for four months after being found guilty of fraud and sending pornographic items to his victims.

Soyombo was arrested by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Ibadan Zonal Office, and charged on one count of fraud.

The convict was brought before Justice Ibrahim Watilat of the Federal High Court, Abeokuta Judicial Division, after his arrest on February 13, 2019.

The verdict came at a time he was supposed to be mobilised for the mandatory one-year National Youth Service programme.

Soyombo had settled for a plea bargain with the EFCC before the initial charges were reduced to one.

The charge that earned him the jail term read, “That you, Ridwan Soyombo (aka Andrea Norde), sometime in 2019, at Awa Ijebu, within the jurisdiction of this honourable court, knowingly sent pornographic and indecent pictures with Google Hangouts account, with email address, andreanorde19@gmail.com, through a computer system and network to one James R. Dunford, thereby committing an offence contrary to Section 24 (1)(a) of the Cybercrimes (Prohibition, Prevention, Etc) Act, 2015, and punishable under Section 24(1) of same Act.”

The prosecution counsel, Mabas Mabur, urged the court to convict Soyombo accordingly since he had admitted to committing the offence and had pleaded guilty.

While delivering his judgment, the judge said the four months’ jail term took effect from February 13, 2019 when he was arrested.

The court also ordered that, through the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Soyombo would forfeit and restitute a sum of $700 to Dunford and Cara Melton, his victims.

The culprit also forfeited his Apple MacBook Air laptop, one iPhone X mobile phone and one Wi-Fi router to the Nigerian government.

The items, believed to be proceeds of his crime, were reportedly recovered from him during his arrest.