Justice M. L. Shuaibu of the Federal High Court, Kaduna has
sentenced two persons, Ifeanyi Echebiri and Sylvester Okoli to seven years
imprisonment each for obtaining money under false pretence.
The accused persons
were arraigned by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission on May 13, 2011
on a 21-count charge of obtaining money under false presence contrary to
Section 8(a) of the Advance Fee Fraud and Other Fraud Related Offences Act 2006
and punishable under Section 1(3) of the same Act.
The accused pleaded
not guilty to the charge. In the course of the trial, the EFCC called eight
witnesses and presented several documents which were admitted as exhibits. After over two years of trial, Justice
Shuaibu delivered judgment on April 26, 2013 and convicted the accused persons
on 17 of the 21 counts. The accused persons were sentenced to seven year
imprisonment on each of the counts but the sentence is to run concurrently.
The court also
ordered that the accused persons make restitution to the complainant. However,
this order will only be carried out sequel to a thorough and satisfactory
investigation into the source of the complainant’s money, that it was not
acquired illegally.
According to a
statement by the EFCC Head of Media, Wilson Uwujaren, the convicts’ journey to
prison began when on May 13, 2011 one Usman Falalu, a 31-year-old engineer who
works with a construction company in Kaduna petitioned the Commission, alleging
that that he was swindled of the sum of N33million by a syndicate of fraudsters
through a phony contract to supply Power Voltage Rings worth N132 million to Power
Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN).
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