Nollywood Filmmaker, Seun Egbegbe, Finally, Regains Freedom

By Akinwale Kasali

After spending six years and eight months in prison custody, Olajide Kareem, popularly known as Seun Egbegbe has been freed by a Federal High court in Lagos.

Egbegbe was remanded on February 10, 2017, having allegedly defrauded and obtained  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.

Out of the 40-count charges against him, Egbegbe was found guilty of only one count, count 19 and was sentenced to seven years imprisonment.

He was arraigned by the Police for alleged fraud involving N39m; $90,000 and £12,550, N39,098,100, respectively.

He allegedly stole Apple IPhones from a Store in Ikeja, where he was apprehended.

Egbegbe 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 was later joined by Lawal Kareem, Olalekan Yusuf and Muyideen Shoyombo on a 44 count charge.

However, on Tuesday, the court 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 also said that police tampered with the money recovered from the suspects.

Time was when Egbegbe was the rave of the moment in the Nigeria Movie Industry, especially in the Yoruba Genre as one of the leading Movie producers.

He owned Ebony Films Productions imprint, where he also managed Fuji artistes, Wale Ayinde, Tekoma and Pasuma.

He rose from obscurity to prominence in the industry as female actors in the industry wanted to have a relationship with him.

He once dated popular Nollywood Actress, Toyin Abraham for several years before he was remanded in Prison and the relationship went sour.