An Osogbo chief magistrates’ court has convicted and sentenced a 62-year-old man, Loja Oni, to one year imprisonment for forging the signature of a dead monarch, Oba Rasco Alli of Ilowa.
The 62-year-old was jailed by Chief Magistrate Olusola Aluko, who found him guilty of forging the late monarch’s signature and laying claim to a land belonging to the deceased.
The convict, who pleaded not guilty to the two-count charge from the inception of the trial on June 22, 2011, was found guilty after over two years of court proceedings.
Aluko adopted the evidences and facts presented by the prosecution and convicted the accused accordingly.
The judge added that he personally visited the land in dispute and discovered insincerity in the evidence given by the convict in court.
He, therefore, sentenced the accused to one year imprisonment with an option of N10, 000 as fine.
Aluko, who noted that the convict was neither sober nor remorseful of the offence, said he considered the age of the convict when he gave the sentence.
He said the police prosecutor, Sergeant Joshua Oladoye, was able to establish a case of forgery against the convict.
The judge said that the convict had presented two fake receipts of forged signature of the late Alowa of Ilowa, portraying the late king as the seller of a landed property to him (Oni).
Oladoye explained that the convict, who claimed he bought the landed property from the deceased, presented two fake receipts dated June 22, 2001.
The police said that the accused also grabbed the land of the son of the deceased.
He added that in the course of police investigation, the receipts presented by the convict for the purported lands were established to be fake with forged signatures of the deceased, the owner of the land.
The police thereafter charged the convict to court for forgery under sections 465 and 467 of the Criminal Code Cap 34 Vol.11 Laws of Osun 2003.*
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