The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has secured the conviction of Osahon Scott, who posed as one United States, US military officer to perpetrate online fraud.

Scott was arraigned on March 12, 2019, before Justice Umar Bature of a Federal Capital High, FCT High Court sitting in Maitama, on an amended one-count charge bordering on cheating.

The count reads: “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 peace keeping 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.”

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, he pleaded “guilty” to the charge.

Prosecuting counsel, Deborah Ademu-Eteh, thereafter, urged the court to convict and sentence him accordingly, while considering the plea bargain.

Defence counsel, Ochumba Kingsley, however, pleaded with the court to temper justice with mercy, appealing to the court to “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”.

While adjourning to March 19, 2019 for sentencing, Justice Bature 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.

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