BREAKING: Court discharges, acquits Nollywood film-maker Seun Egbegbe
Olajide Kareem, also known as Seun Egbegbe, is a film director and producer in Nollywood. He was found not guilty by a Federal High court in Lagos after spending six years and eight months in prison.
Egbegbe was sent to jail on February 10, 2017, because he was accused of stealing money from at least 40 Bureaus De Change in different parts of Lagos over the course of two years, from 2015 to 2017.
He was accused of trying to trick the people at the BDC by saying he had naira to trade for foreign currencies.
The 45-year-old controversial figure in the Yoruba movie industry was charged with fraud involving $90,000, £12,550, and N39,098,100, according to the police.
Egbegbe was accused of ripping off BDC operators when he managed Fuji artists Wale Ayinde, Tekoma, and Pasuma.
The director who paid for the making of several Yoruba movies under his Ebony Films Productions label was unable to meet the bail conditions more than three years later.
On February 10, 2017, the ex-convict and another man named Oyekan Ayomide were brought before Justice Oluremi Oguntoyinbo and charged with 36 counts of advance fee fraud.
Lawal Kareem, Olalekan Yusuf, and Muyideen Shoyombo later joined them on a 44-count charge.
But on Tuesday, the court found that Egbegbe was guilty of only one of the 44 counts against him and let him go.
Justice Oguntoyinbo decided that 43 of the 44 counts were dropped because there were not enough witnesses to back up the claims.
Also, the judge said that the prosecuting team didn’t do its job on Counts 4, 19, and 21 by not giving evidence that could be backed up by witnesses.
The judge also said that the money that was taken from the suspects was changed by the police.
Justice Oguntoyinbo also said that Egbegbe should get all of the money that was taken from him as evidence.
Join our 100,000+ members and never miss our members’ exclusive Breaking News and Entertainment Gist.
Gain Access to Our Private News Room
Popular Stories right now
- Kylian Mbappe: France forward feels ‘betrayed’ by PSG and wants to leave – Julien Laurens
- Why I joined politics – Banky W
- ASUU awaits Buhari on no-work-no-pay, holds NEC meeting
