ABUJA (THE GUARDIAN) -- A Federal High Court in Abuja has remanded one Osahon Scott for falsely parading himself as an American soldier Sgt. Major John Rossi in other to perpetrate online fraud.
Scott was arraigned on March 12, 2019, by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) before Justice Umar Bature over an amended one-count charge bordering on cheating.
He was accused of attempting “to commit cheating by posing as United States Gen. Sgt. Major John Rossi an American soldier deployed to Afghanistan on peacekeeping.”
The defendant was also said to have “fraudulently induced one Li Sufung to deliver the sum of 20, 000 Yuan (Twenty Thousand Yuan).”
According to the suit, “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.”
Following the hearing and submission of 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, Scott pleaded “guilty” to the charge.
But his defence counsel pleaded to the court to have mercy on his client and “put into consideration that the defendant has been consistent with his custody terms; his health status of being a peptic ulcer patient; surviving son of a single mother, an aging grandfather and a young man with a bright future ahead who is remorseful of his actions.”
The court, however, turned down the defendant’s application for administrative bail and adjourned the case to March 19, 2019, for sentencing.
Bature ordered that the defendant should be remanded in Kuje Prison till then.
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