Serial Fraudster Bags 15 Years for N4m Fraud

Justice Umaru Fadawu of the Borno State High Court sitting in Maiduguri, on July 16, 2021, sentenced a serial fraudster, Alen Abel, to fifteen years imprisonment for obtaining N4,065, 000.00 (Four Million, Sixty-five Thousand Naira), under false pretence.

The offence is contrary to Section 1 (1) (a) of the Advance Fee Fraud and Other Related Offences Act, 2006 and punishable under Section 1 (3) of the same Act.

The convict was arraigned on July 14, 2021 by the EFCC on two separate one count charge.

One of the charge reads: ‘‘That you Alen Abel, sometimes in May 2020 at Maiduguri, within the Jurisdiction of this Honourable Court, with intent to defraud did obtained One Hundred (100) bags of rice worth N900, 000.00 (Nine Hundred Thousand Naira ) only from Saaqndo Orseer Emmanuel under the pretense of executing a contract of supply of food items, purportedly awarded by Federal Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Disaster Management (Federal Government School Feeding Programme), under the Special Intervention Programme (SIP), which you knew to be false and thereby committed an offence, contrary to Section 1 (1) (a) of the Advance Fee Fraud and Other Related Offences Act, 2006 and punishable under Section 1 (3) of the same Act.’’

The other charge reads: ‘‘That you Alen Abel, sometimes in May 2020 at Maiduguri within the Jurisdiction of this Honourable Court with intent to defraud did obtained 25kg of Spaghetti at N2,900 (Two Thousand, Nine Hundred Naira) only per carton and Twenty bags of rice at N16,000 (Sixteen Thousand Naira) only per bag worth N3, 165, 000.00 (Three Million, One Hundred and Sixty-five Thousand Naira) from Sontanimen Orison Nyigngo under the pretence of executing a contract of supply of food items, purportedly awarded by Federal Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Disaster Management And Social Development (Federal Government School Feeding Programme), under the Special Intervention Programme (SIP), which you knew to be false and thereby committed an offence, contrary to Section 1 (1) (a) of the Advance Fee Fraud and Other Related Offences Act, 2006 and punishable under Section 1 (3) of the same Act.’’

The convict pleaded ‘‘guilty’’ to the separate charges preferred against him by the EFCC.

Upon his plea, the prosecution counsel, Mukhtar Ali Ahmed, through Buba Abdul, an operative of the EFCC, reviewed the facts of the case and prayed the court to convict and sentence Abel as charged.

Justice Fadawu, after listening to the prayer of the prosecution, convicted the defendant and sentenced him to eight and seven years imprisonment on the respective charge.

He however ordered that the jail term will be served consecutively.

Justice Fadawu also ordered the convict to pay N4, 065, 000.00 (Four Million, Sixty-five Thousand Naira), in restitution; and in the event of failure to obey the restitution order, the convict shall serve five years jail term on the two separate charges.