Posted by By OLA AGBAJE on
A land speculator in Lagos, Reverend Samuel Mojere, has been sentenced to 60 years imprisonment for defrauding a client to the tune of N4.6 million.
‘Man of God' goes to jail for fraud
A land speculator in Lagos, Reverend Samuel Mojere, has been sentenced to 60 years imprisonment for defrauding a client to the tune of N4.6 million.
Shortly before his conviction, Mojere said: 'I know I did not intend to defraud him and I will come out free, but if I intended to defraud him, I will be sent to jail and die there."
Mojere, described as a land speculator in the Ajah area, was found guilty on all the six-count charges preferred against him by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) for defrauding one Livinus Arungwa in a hoax land deal.
The convict, who opted to defend himself after he fell out with his counsel, allegedly defrauded his victim by offering to sell to him a parcel of land in Imale-Nfa-Alafia village in Ibeju-Lekki Local Government Area of Lagos State some time in 2004.
The trial judge, Justice Olubunmi Oyewole held that Mojere deliberately hoodwinked his victim on the pretext that the land was available for sale when, in reality, there was no land for sale.
After receiving the complete payment, the convict also collected another N100,000 on the pretext of procuring a survey to cover the land.
However, he could not come up with any genuine survey.
'The accused cannot escape culpability in respect thereto. Exhibit P6, the purported survey-plan is dated 10th December, 1997 for a piece of land transacted in 2004 and in respect of which payment for survey was made after the completion of purchase price," said the court.
'Under cross-examination, the accused admitted that at the time payment for the said survey was made, the land offered for sale had been sold by the real owner to someone else. Exhibit P6 (the survey) is, therefore, contrivance in the scheme of fraud of the accused person," the court held.
On his defence, the court said: 'The defence put up by the accused holds no water. He never disclosed that he was not the owner of the land for which he collected money.
'It is incredible that in his bid to secure alternative piece of land for the victim as stated by him, he paid N3.5 million to a certain person whose residence he did not know and who simply disappeared into the thin air thereafter.
'He could not show any evidence, not even a receipt given to him by the person he supposedly paid N3.5 million, a person whose home he did not know," the court held.
Mojere's attempt to rope in the victim's lawyer, Godwin Oware was rejected by the court. The convict had told the court that he gave part of the money collected during the transaction to the lawyer as commission.
In the court's view, Mojere failed to challenge and confront the lawyer who testified for the prosecution when he had the opportunity.
The court held that the allegations against the lawyer by Mojere was not enough to make him an accomplice since there was nothing before the court to suggest that he was privy to the criminal schemes prior to the payment or thereafter.
Consequently, Mojere was pronounced guilty on all the six counts. Each of the charge carries a minimum of 10 years. The court, however, was lenient to Mojere by directing that the sentence should run concurrently. Consequently, he would spend only 10 years instead of 60 years behind the bars.