Justice O. A. Adeniyi of the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja on Thursday, June 19, 2014, convicted and sentenced the duo of Abdulmalik Suleiman a.k.a Ndanussa Bello and Adabenege Abdulaziz a.k.a Comrade Patrick Ugo to 10 years imprisonment for impersonation, conspiracy, forgery and attempting to obtain money by false pretence.
The convicts were arraigned in May 2009 on 11-count charge of attempting to defraud one John Bernand Yusuf of the National Institute for Cultural Orientation (NICO) Abuja by pretending to be operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC. The convicts had asked Yusuf to pay five hundred thousand naira (N500, 000) in order for them to destroy a petition allegedly written against him.`
Yusuf consequently reported the matter to the EFCC and was asked to play along with the convicts. It was at the point of collecting the cash that Abdulmalik Suleiman was apprehended while Adabenege Abdulaziz was arrested after further investigation.
Justice Adeniyi found the first accused person guilty on nine of the 11 counts, while the second accused was found guilty on five of the counts.
On counts one and two, the accused persons were found guilty and sentenced to ten years imprisonment without an option of fine for conspiracy and attempting to obtain by false pretence. The first accused was sentenced to two years without fine on count three, four, five, seven, eight and nine. The second accused was sentenced to two years without an option of fine on count six and ten while they were both sentenced to one year imprisonment for impersonation. The sentences are to run concurrently.
One of the counts reads: “That you Abdulmalik Suleiman and Adabegene S. Abdulaziz sometime in March 2008, in Abuja within the jurisdiction of the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory, did agree between yourselves to obtain the sum of N500,000 (Five Hundred Thousand Naira) from one John Bernard Yusuf of National Institute for Cultural Orientation, Abuja under the false pretence that you were staff of Economic and Financial Crimes Commission and thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 8(a) of the Advance Fee Fraud and Other Fraud Related Offences Act 2006 and punishable under Section 1(3) of the same Act.”
Media and Publicity
June 20th, 2014
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