Maiduguri High Court jails Mohammed for N99.75 million fraud in Borno
By Njadvara Musa, Maiduguri
The Borno State High Court sitting in Maiduguri, has sentenced Kyari Mohammed for one-year jail term for alleged fraud of N99.8 million.
Mohammed, the Managing Director of Kyari and Sons Company Nigeria Ltd; was first arraigned on June 21, 2021 by the Maiduguri Zonal Command of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), before Justice Fadawa of the High Court.
The Court charged him for conspiracy and criminal misappropriation of N99.75 million.
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During the resumed hearing of the matter, Justice Fadawa, however, returned the case file to the Borno State Chief Judge, Justice Kashim Zannah for reassignment.
The reassignment was based on the objection raised by the defense counsel, W.Y Maikyau.
While passing the judgment, over the weekend (Thursday); in Maiduguri, Justice Aisha Kumaliya of the High Court, said: “That you Kyari Mohammed being a Managing Director of Kyari and Sons Company Nigeria Limited an alter ego of Kyari and Sons Company Nigeria Limited, a company registered in Nigeria, sometimes March, 2018 at Maiduguri, Borno State within the jurisdiction of this Court, did conspire among yourselves to obtain a gross sum of N99.75 million.
“This you knew be false and thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 8(a) of the Advance Fee Fraud and other Fraud Related Offences and Punishable under the same Act.”
The defendant, however, pleaded ‘not guilty’ to the charges preferred against him by EFCC.
Counsels for the prosecution, Mukhtar Ali Ahmed and S.O Saka, in the course of the trial, presented three witnesses and tendered documents as exhibits before the court.
Counsel for the defendant, Maikyau, prayed the court to temper justice with mercy and sentence the defendant with an option of fine “as he is a first time offender”.
Justice Kumaliya thereafter convicted and sentenced Mohammed to one year imprisonment with an option of N200, 000 only.
She also further ordered the convict to pay the sum of N99.75 million to the petitioner or spend ten years in the Maiduguri correctional centre.
The convict’s journey to the Correctional Centre began when a petitioner alleged that he fraudulently collected food items worth N99.75 million from him, and under the guise of supplying them to a Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO), with a promise to pay for supplied food items in 45 days.
The jailed Mohammed neither paid for the food items nor returned them to the supplier.
