A United States court has sentenced Oba Joseph Oloyede, the traditional ruler of Ipetumodu in Osun State, to 56 months in prison over $4.2 million COVID-19 fraud.
The trial judge, Christopher Boyko, delivered the judgment on Tuesday in the Northern District of Ohio.
According to court records, Oloyede and a Nigerian pastor, Edward Oluwasanmi, were arrested in April 2024 for submitting fraudulent loan applications using false information.
Justice Boyko, in his ruling, ordered that the monarch serve three years of supervised release after imprisonment and pay $4,408,543 in restitution.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Ohio, in a statement, also confirmed that Oloyede would forfeit $96,006 earlier seized by investigators as well as his residence in Medina.
Pastor Oluwasanmi had earlier, in July 2025, been sentenced to 27 months imprisonment over the same fraud case.
