Justice A. M. Sambo of the Bauchi State High Court on Thursday sentenced one Muhammad Abdullahi Yusuf to six months imprisonment with a N20,000 option of fine prison on a two-count charge of criminal breach of trust involving N11.2 million rice deal.
Yusuf was prosecuted by the Gombe zonal office of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, following a petition by one Mrs Laraba Patrick, a rice distributor with Tim Tali Rice Mills Limited, Langtang, Plateau State.
The petitioner complained that she supplied two trucks of 400 bags of rice each worth N11, 200,000 to the defendant with an agreement that he would pay within five days, but he failed.
The anti-graft agency said its investigation revealed that though the defendant sold out the supply, he could not account for the proceeds as he was only able to deliver N1, 500,000.00 to the petitioner.
One of the charges against the convict read, “That you Muhammad Abdullahi Yusuf on or about the 9th May, 2019 in Bauchi, Bauchi State, within the jurisdiction of this honourable court, fraudulently induced one Mrs Laraba Patrick to deliver to you, 400 bags of Tam Tali parboiled rice worth N5, 600,000.00 (Five Million, Six Hundred Thousand Naira) by falsely representing that the goods were to be distributed to the Non Academic Staff Union, Bauchi State Polytechnic, Bauchi State, which pretence you knew to be false, and thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 320 (b) of the Penal Code Law and punishable under Section 322 of the same Law.”
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When the charges were read, Yusuf pleaded guilty.
Justice Sambo therefore sentenced him accordingly and ordered that he restitute his victim N9, 700, 000 within one year from the date of sentencing.