Gombe Court Jails Police, Immigration Officers For N1.6m Employment Fraud
By Anne Osemekeh, Abuja
Two Police officers and a personnel of the Nigeria Immigration Service have been sentenced to seven years imprisonment each for employment fraud to the tune of N1,640,000.
Spokesman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Dele Oyewale, in a statement on Thursday, said the convicts were arraigned before Justice T.G. Ringing of the Federal High Court sitting in Gombe, Gombe State, and sentenced on Tuesday, November 26, 2024.
TheFact Daily reports that while the two police officers, Yusuf AbdulKarim Bature and Musa Philip, were arraigned on two count – charges of obtaining by false pretences and intent to defraud, the Immigrations officer, Nasiru Mohammed, was arraigned on one-count charge of obtaining by false pretences by the Gombe Zonal Directorate of the anti-graft commission.
According to count one of the charges, Yusuf AbdulKarim Bature and Musa Philip sometime in 2022, falsely obtained from one Asabe Hamed the total sum of N970,000 (Nine Hundred and Seventy Thousand Naira) for the purpose of securing a job, a claim they knew to be false.
The charge against Nasiru Mohammed accuses him of falsely obtaining the sum of 670,000 from Abdul Rahman Abubakar and Akwalo Adamu, under the false pretence of securing them a job with the Nigerian Immigration Service, 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.
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 Ringim 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.
