A Sokoto State High Court has convicted and sentenced one Ahmad Abubakar Ahmad to 87 years imprisonment, for fraud to the tune of N325,800,000 (Three Hundred and Twenty-Five Million, Eight Hundred Thousand Naira).
Acting Head, Media and Publicity of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Mr Dele Oyewole disclosed this in a statement on Friday.
Ahmad was jailed on Thursday, 5th October 2023 by Justice Malami Dogondaji after pleading guilty to 12-count charges bordering on criminal breach of trust and obtaining by false pretence.
According to one of the charges read against the convict, Ahmad, sometime in October 2022, dishonestly converted the total sum of N80,100,000.00 (Eighty Million One Hundred Thousand Naira) given to him by one Usama Abdullahi for the purpose of Bureau de Change business, to his personal use, thus violating the mode in which the trust was to be discharged, and so committed the offence of Criminal Breach of Trust contrary to Section 300 of the Sokoto State Penal Code Law 2019 and punishable under Section 301 of the same Law.
Another charge read against the convict accused him of commiting the same offence with the sum of N50,000,000, given to him by one Najib Hamza, also for the purpose of Bureau de Change business.
Upon arraignment, the defendant pleaded guilty to all the 12 counts charges preferred against him, prompting EFCC’s counsel, Kufre Ekpeyoung to pray the court to convict him accordingly.
Defence counsel, Hamza Liman pleaded for a lighter sentence for his client “in view of the fact that he is a first-time offender”.
Justice Dogondaji thereafter convicted and sentenced Abubakar Ahmad Abubakar to 87 years imprisonment with an option of a fine of N200,000.00 (Two Hundred Thousand Naira) on each count totalling N2,400.000.00 (Two Million Four Hundred Thousand Naira).
He also ordered restitution of N225,661,000 (Two Hundred and Twenty Five Million Six Hundred and Sixty One Thousand Naira) to all the petitioners, through the EFCC.
Ahmad was arrested by operatives of the Sokoto Zonal Command of the EFCC for defrauding 12 different persons of various sums of money under the guise of investments in his purported bureau de change business which investigations proved to be false.
Investigations further revealed that Ahmad promised his victims between 50% to 100% interest on their investments monthly. He neither offered them any return on their investment nor refunded their money to them.
