Olajide Kareem, also known as Seun Egbegbe, a producer and director for Nollywood who was found guilty of fraud and sentenced to six years and eight months in jail in Lagos, has uploaded a video of his reunion with his mother after six years.
After allegedly receiving money under false pretense from no less than 40 Bureaux de Change operators over the course of two years between 2015 and 2017, Egbegbe was placed on remand on February 10.
He was charged with defrauding the BDC operators by saying he had naira to exchange for foreign money.
Only one of the 44 counts brought against him—Count 19—was found to be true, and Egbegbe was consequently punished.
Sharing the video, Seun thanked God and expressed how happy he was to meet her.
In the video, the mother and son were seen hugging each other as they both cried.
Nigerians react
Reacting to the video, one Halima wrote, “Stay away from crime”
One Sandyprenuer wrote, “Awwn..she did that little snuggle on his cheeks.? A mother’s love is so pure.”
One _deagram wrote, “He will now value freedom more than anything. Freedom is the most important thing human beings can have.”
Another wrote, “Freedom is very very underated ??, it’s a very keen prayer that nothing comes our way that will make them take our freedom away?”
One Sauceprince1 wrote, “Freedom at last. Mothers love for her child? I kid you not, it’s the most genuine thing you will ever experience, same as FATHERS. May God reward our parents for their labour of LOVE. And may they not be absent when we start to WIN.”
Mr_dbbk wrote, “He is now a celebrity and camera captures all his steps, we celebrate rubbish and I think this is why many people want to do nasty things to get to the media asap, nasty things sells better here”
How Seun Egbegbe was released
Veritynews had earlier reported that because he had already served six years and eight months in detention, the judge ordered his release.
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, aka Tekoma and Wasiu Alabi, aka Pasuma, was accused of defrauding the BDC operators.
Unfortunately, the filmmaker who financed the production of several Yoruba films under his Ebony Films Productions imprint, had been unable to fulfil the bail conditions more than three years after.
The former convict was initially charged with 36 counts of alleged Advance Fee fraud on February 10, 2017, before Justice Oluremi Oguntoyinbo.
Later, Lawal Kareem, Olalekan Yusuf, and Muyideen Shoyombo joined the pair on a 44-count accusation.
On Tuesday, however, the court released Egbegbe after finding him guilty of just one of the 44 crimes brought against him.
43 of the 44 count charges, according to Justice Oguntoyinbo, were dismissed because there weren’t enough witnesses to back up the allegations.
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 also 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.