BUSTED!! Fake American Soldier Nabbed By EFCC, Bags One Year Jail Term

Justice S.U. Bature of a Federal Capital Territory, FCT High Court, sitting in Maitama Abuja, has sentenced Osahon Scott, who posed as a United States military officer to perpetrate online fraud, to one year in prison.

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, to which he pleaded “guilty”, based on a plea bargain.

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.”

He was earlier convicted on March 12, 2019, with the trial judge fixing March 19, 2019 for sentencing.

In sentencing him, Justice Bature took into cognizance, the plea bargain which was brought pursuant to Section 270 (1)a, b (2)a (3) of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act, ACJA 2015.

Putting into consideration the fact 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, the trial judge gave him an option of N50,000 as fine, in lieu of the jail term.