Maiduguri Court Jails MD over N99m Fraud

Maiduguri Court Jails MD over N99m Fraud

By: Bodunrin Kayode

Justice Aisha Kumaliya of the Borno State High Court, Maiduguri, on Wednesday, March 7, 2024, convicted and sentenced Alhaji Kyari Mohammed, managing director, Kyari and Sons Company Nigeria Limited, to one year
imprisonment.

Mohammed was first arraigned on June 21, 2021 by the Maiduguri Zonal Command of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, before Justice Umaru Fadawu of the Borno State High Court, Maiduguri on two – charges bordering on conspiracy and criminal misappropriation to the tune of over N99 million.

At the resumed hearing of the matter, Justice Fadawu recused himself from the case and returned his file to the Borno State Chief Judge for reassignment based on the objection raised by the defence
counsel W. Y Maikyau.

Thereafter, on Thursday, September 22, 2022, Kyari was arraigned before Justice Aisha Kumaliya of the Borno State High Court, Maiduguri on two -count amended charges bordering on conspiracy and criminal misappropriation.

A release from the EFCC stated that count one reads: ”That you Kyari Mohammed being
a Managing Director of Kyari and Sons Company Nigeria Limited and
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 Honorable Court, did conspire among yourselves to obtained the gross sum of N99,750,000.00 which you knew to 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 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 W.Y 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, 000.00 only.

The Judge further ordered the convict to pay the sum of N99, 750,000.00 (Ninety Nine Million,
Seven Hundred and Fifty Thousand Naira) only to the petitioner or spend ten
years in the Correctiional Centre.

The convict’s journey to the Correctional
Centre began when a petitioner alleged that he fraudulently collected food items
amounting to N99, 750,000.00 from him, under the guise of supplying the items to a Non- Governmental Organization,

NGO, with a promise to pay for the items within forty-five days. Mohammed neither paid for the food items nor returned
them to the supplier. ” said the release.

Maiduguri Court Jails MD over N99m Fraud