The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Maiduguri zonal command, secured the conviction and sentencing of one Bukar Muhammad before Justice Aisha Kumaliya of the Borno State High Court Maiduguri to one-year imprisonment on Tuesday.
Mohammed was first arraigned on a one-count charge of obtaining by false pretence on Tuesday, September 7, 2021, and later re-arraigned on an amended charge of criminal breach of trust for the sum of N43,328,000.00 (forty-three million, three hundred and twenty-eight thousand naira).
The EFCC received a petition from one Alhaji Ali Mohammed, who claimed that he entrusted the above-mentioned cash to the defendant for safekeeping but converted it for his own use.
The count reads: “That you, Bukar Mohammed, sometime in 2018 at Maiduguri, Borno State, within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court fraudulently induced one Alhaji Ali Mohammed to deliver to you monies in Euros and Naira to the equivalent sum of forty-three million, three hundred and twenty-eight thousand Naira (N43,328,000.00) only under the false pretence of collecting same for safekeeping, which facts you knew to be false and thereby committed an offence contrary to and punishable under sections 1(1)(b) and 1(3) of the Advance Fee Fraud and Other Fraud Related Offences Act, 2006, respectively.”
Mohammed, however, pleaded ‘not guilty’ to the one-count charge, prompting a full trial of the case.
Mukhtar Ali Ahmed, counsel for the prosecution, and S.O. Saka presented three witnesses and three exhibits as evidence.
In her decision, Justice Kumaliya found the defendant guilty and sentenced him to a fine of N200,000.00 (two hundred thousand naira only) or one year in prison. She also ordered the convict to pay N13,234,100 to his victim or serve an additional seven years in prison.
In another incident, Justice Umaru Fadawu of the Borno State High Court in Maiduguri sentenced Musa Bello to one year in jail on a one-count allegation of defrauding to the tune of N1,300,000.00 (One Million, Three Hundred Thousand Naira).
The charge read: ‘’That you, Musa Bello, on or about March 9, 2023, in Maiduguri, within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court, dishonestly induced one Aminu Ahmed and others under the guise of facilitating food distribution items from a non-governmental organisation, Save the Children, and collected the total sum of N1, 300,000.00 (one million, three hundred thousand naira) and thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 320 (a) of Borno State Penal Code Law Cap. 102 and punishable under Section 322 of the same law”.
The defendant entered a ‘guilty’ plea to the charge.
Faruq Muhammad, counsel for the EFCC, produced one witness and urged the court to convict him accordingly.
Justice Fadawu found him guilty and sentenced him to one year in prison with a fine of N200,000.00 (two hundred thousand naira).
