The Lagos State Correctional Service on Wednesday released Nollywood filmmaker and producer, Olajide Kareem, aka Seun Egbegbe, who was on Tuesday, October 11, sentenced to seven years imprisonment ‘with hard labour’ for fraud.
Its Public Relations Officer, Mr. Rotimi Oladokun, confirmed that the Command released Seun Egbegbe from its custody following the court’s order.
Justice Oluremi Oguntoyinbo sentenced Kareem after convicting him of one of the 40-count charge filed against him by the police on Wednesday, October 12, 2022.
Kareem had been in detention for 57 months since his arrest in 2017.
The judge, however, set Kareem free because the convict had exceeded the imprisonment time in detention, following which the Correctional Service complied.
Mr. Oladokun said the convict was released from the Ikoyi Correctional Centre.
The actor was arraigned by the police in February 2017 on 36 counts of advance fee fraud involving N39 million; $90,000 and £12,550.
The police alleged that he fraudulently obtained the money from no fewer than 40 Bureau De Change operators in Lagos for two years – 2015 to 2017.
The erstwhile Lagos socialite pleaded not guilty and was remanded in prison custody on February 10, 2017, pending when he would satisfy the jail terms.
He was unable to meet the bail terms and remained in detention during the trial.
The charge sheet was subsequently amended twice, with the counts eventually increased to 40 and three other defendants – Lawal Kareem, Olalekan Yusuf and Muyideen Shoyombo – added, making the defendants five.
The five Defendants entered pleas of not guilty to the 1st and 2nd counts while Kareem, the 1st Defendant, pleaded not guilty to the remaining thirty-eight counts.