Friday, November 29, 2024 -A Federal High Court sitting in Gombe has convicted and sentenced two police officers: Yusuf AbdulKarim Bature and Musa Philip and an immigration officer, Nasiru Mohammed to seven years imprisonment each for employment fraud to the tune of N1,640,000, (One Million Six Hundred and Forty Thousand Naira).
Bature and Philip were arraigned before Justice T.G. Ringing on two
count-charges of obtaining by false pretences and intent to defraud, while
Mohammed was arraigned on one-count charge of obtaining by false pretences by
the Gombe Zonal Directorate of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission,
EFCC.
The duo had collected N970,000, while Mohammed collected N670,000 as
payment for employment slots.
The convicts neither offered the petitioners the jobs nor returned their
money to them.
Count one of the charges against Yusuf AbdulKarim Bature and Musa Philip
reads: “That you Yusuf Abdul karim.Bature and Musa Philip while being public
officers with the Nigerian Police Force sometime in 2022 in Gombe within the
Gombe Judicial division at the Federal High Court of Justice did with intent to
defraud falsely obtained from one Asabe Hamed the total sum of Nine Hundred and
Seventy Thousand Naira for the purpose of securing a job, a claim you knew to
be false”.
The charge against Nasiru Mohammed reads: “that you Nasiru Mohammed
sometime in 2022 in Gombe within the jurisdiction of this honourable court
while being a staff of the Nigerian Immigration Service did falsely obtained
the sum of Six Hundred and Seventy Thousand Naira (N670,000) from Abdul Rahman
Abubakar and Akwalo Adamu under the false pretence of securing them a job with
the Nigerian Immigration service which you knew to be false and thereby
committed an offence contrary to Section 1(1)(a) of the Advance Fee Fraud and
Other Fraud Related Offences Act 2006 and punishable under Section 1(3) of the
same Act”.
Upon arraignment, the defendants pleaded guilty to their respective
charges.
In view of their guilty pleas, prosecution counsel Tortema Joshua prayed
the court to convict and sentence the defendants accordingly but counsels to
the defendants, Babangida Mohammed and K.K. Jomoh pleaded with the court to
temper justice with mercy as the defendants were first-time offenders who are
remorseful of their actions.
Justice Ringing thereafter convicted and sentenced Bature, Philip and
Mohammed to seven years imprisonment each or a fine of N50,000 (Fifty Thousand
Naira) each.
In addition, the judge ordered the convicts to pay restitution of N1,640,000 to the petitioners and sign an undertaking to be of good behaviour henceforth.
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