The famous filmmaker and producer Olajide Kareem popularly called Seun Egbegbe has been sentenced to a seven year jail term. This order was passed in a Federal High Court in Lagos after the filmmaker was charged for fraud.
Before this particular court sitting, Egbegbe had been detained for 57 months. As a result of this, he was released on the term that he had spent the time in detention. Justice Oluremi Oguntoyinbo passed Kareem the sentence on Tuesday after convicting him of one of the 44-count charges filed against him by the police.
The trial which had been on since May 10, 2017, was continued on Tuesday when Justice Oguntoyinbo found Egbegbe guilty of count 19 of the 44-count charge filed against him and set him free. She held that the other charges were dismissed because there were not enough witnesses to verify the claims.
She also stated that there were not enough evidence availed by the police in relation to the other charges.
She said; “Having considered the entirety of the circumstances and taking judicial notice of the allocutus, I hereby sentence the 1st Defendant (Kareem) to imprisonment for a term of seven years with hard labour, only in respect of Count 19 of the Amended Charge.
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“The term is to begin from the very first date the 1st Defendant was detained in police custody and/or remanded in prison, whichever comes first. I so hold. This is to send a clear message to all and sundry, the young and as well as the old, the unknown and the famous that, regardless of the number of days a crime goes unpunished, the law would definitely take its course in due course.
“Most importantly, the prosecution witnesses’ contradictory testimonies have failed to satisfy the exact various sums of money contained in the majority of the unviable and unsupported counts of charges filed against the 1st Defendant. I so hold.
“From the avalanche of evidence before this Honourable Court, it is crystal clear the Nigerian Police tampered with the various sums of money collected from the 1st & 2nd Defendants. The serial number of the various sum of money was not recorded by the Exhibit Keeper nor the Exhibit Ledger tendered before this Honourable Court.
