IBADAN, Nigeria (VOICE OF NAIJA) – Nollywood filmmaker and producer, Olajide Kareem, aka Seun Egbegbe, has been freed after five years and eight months in jail.
The Federal High Court in Lagos sentenced Seun Egbegbe, to seven years imprisonment ‘with hard labour’ for fraud.
Kareem, who had been in detention for 57 months since his arrest in 2017, was however released to go home having exceeded the imprisonment time in detention.
According to The Nation, Justice Oluremi Oguntoyinbo sentenced Kareem on Tuesday, 11 October, after convicting him of one of the 44-count charge filed against him by the police.
Egbegbe was remanded on 10 February, 2017, after allegedly obtaining money by false pretence from no fewer than 40 Bureaus De Change operators in different parts of Lagos for over a period of two years between 2015 to 2017.
He was accused of swindling the BDC operators by claiming that he had naira to change into foreign currencies.
The 45-year-old controversial figure in the Yoruba movie industry, was arraigned by the police for alleged fraud involving N39m; $90,000 and £12,550, N39,098,100, respectively.
Egbegbe, who once managed Fuji artistes, Wale Ayinde, Tekoma and Pasuma, was accused of swindling BDC operators.
Unfortunately, the film-maker who financed the production of several Yoruba films under his Ebony Films Productions imprint, had been unable to fulfill the bail conditions more than three years after.
The ex-convict alongside one Oyekan Ayomide were first arraigned on February 10, 2017, before Justice Oluremi Oguntoyinbo, on 36 counts bordering on advance fee fraud.
The duo were later joined by Lawal Kareem, Olalekan Yusuf and Muyideen Shoyombo on a 44 count charge.
On Tuesday, the court however, found Egbegbe guilty of just one of the 44 count charges against him and set him free.
Justice Oguntoyinbo held that 43 of the 44 count charges were crumbled because of lack of witnesses to substantiate their claims.
In addition, the judge held that the prosecuting team failed in the responsibility to provide evidence to be backed with witnesses on Counts 4, 19 and 21.
The Judge said that police tampered with the money recovered from the suspects.
Justice Oguntoyinbo also ruled that all the money recovered from Egbegbe as evidence should be returned to him.
The judge also freed the four other defendants.