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A Rivers State High Court sitting in Port Harcourt has sentenced one Roland Onosemuode, to six months imprisonment for forging a Bachelors of Engineering (Chemical) degree of the University of PortHarcourt.
Crimefacts.news gathered the suspect was arrested through a sting operation after complaints of his nefarious activities were made to relevant authorities.
Intelligence that had reached the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) indicated that Onosemuode had been in the business of forging such certificates and selling them to interested buyers.
The Rivers
State office of the Commission therefore carried out a sting operation in which
an operative posed as a prospective certificate buyer, and that led to the
convict’s arrest with the forged degree certificate found in his
possession.
Onosemuode
was then charged before Justice S. H. Aprioko by ICPC on a one-count bordering
on forgery of documents with the intent to criminally sell same to members of
the public.
Counsel to
ICPC, Dr. Agada Akogwu, told the court that Onosemuode’s action was contrary to
Section 465 of the Criminal Code and punishable under Section 466 of the same
Act.
The convict then pleaded guilty after the
charge had been read to him at his arraignment on 15th November, 2019.
His counsel,
Mr. Kenneth Ejiofor, urged the judge to be lenient with the sentencing being
that he was a first-time offender who did not waste the time of the court
during the trial.
Justice
Aprioko, while delivering judgment, sentenced him to a six-month non-custodial
sentence of communal service which will involve him putting in three hours of
hard work with ICPC every week. The nature of the hard work would be directed
and supervised by ICPC. Bryn Wealthholm
