Justice Mohammed Owolabi of the Oyo State High Court 14, sitting in Iyaganku, Ibadan, has convicted one Hammed Babatunde Mutiu of visa racketeering and sentenced him to nine months in prison.

Hammed was facing a 16-count criminal charge of obtaining money under false pretence, uttering and forging documents in a suit filed against him by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, Ibadan zonal office.

The charge was a sequel to a petition jointly written by four of his victims in which he was alleged to have collected sums totalling 4, 350, 000 (Four Million, Three Hundred and Fifty Thousand Naira)  with the pretence that he had secured Canadian visas for them.

According to the charge, Hammed merely claimed to be what he was not in order to take advantage of the Nigerians who were desperate to seek greener pasture outside the shores of the country.

The court found him guilty of all the charges and convicted him accordingly.

While delivering his judgment, Justice Owolabi lamented the growing menace of visa racketeering and the consequences on the Nigerian people. 

He posited that culprits like Hammed deserve to be accordingly punished to serve as deterrence to others.

The conviction, according to him, comes with hard labour and without an option of fine.

Apart from the N500, 000.00 (Five Hundred Thousand) earlier restituted, Justice Owolabi also ordered Hammed to deliver the sum of N200, 000.00 (Two Hundred Thousand Naira) monthly through the EFCC to his victims ‘by way of restitution of part of the benefits he derived from his fraudulent acts.’

He was equally ordered to give up his Lexus RX 300 Jeep in the sum of N650, 000.00 (Six Hundred and Fifty Thousand Naira) as part payment of the restitution of the sums he obtained by false pretense.