A Sokoto State High Court, sitting in Sokoto on Thursday, April 1, 2021, slammed a 70-year jail term on a fraudster, Hamzat Muhammad Bashar for fraudulently obtaining the sum of N29 million.
The judgement was passed Justice Bello Duwale who slammed the convicted suspect with seventy years imprisonment without an option of fine after he was found guilty of obtaining Twenty Nine Million Eight Hundred and Sixty-Five Thousand Naira (N29,865,000.00) by false pretence.
Count one of the charge reads: “That you Hamzat Bashar Muhammad, Hindatu Bashar (Now at Large) and Hamga Investment Resources Limited sometimes within the months of June to December, 2018 at Sokoto within the Jurisdiction of this Honourable Court, with intent to defraud, did obtain the total sum of N23,760,000 (Twenty Three Million Seven Hundred and Sixty Naira) from Hadiza Aliyu (for herself and other victims) when you falsely represented yourselves to her, to be running a genuine business investment of Gold and Herbs, a pretence you knew to be false and thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 1(1)(a) of the Advance Fee Fraud and Other Fraud Related Offences Act of 2006 and punishable under Section 1(3) of the same Act.”
He pleaded not guilty to all the charges, which necessitated his trial.
Prosecution counsel, Habila Jonathan, in the course of the trial called ten witnesses and tendered several documents to prove the case against the defendant.
Delivering judgment on Thursday, Justice Duwale ruled that the EFCC has proved its case beyond a reasonable doubt; convicted the defendant on counts 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 11, and 12.
He then sentenced him to seven years in prison without an option of fine on each of the 10 counts, which will run concurrently.
