Justice Umaru Fadawu of the Borno State High Court sitting in Maiduguri has convicted one Mustapha Kyari for dishonesty and stealing.
The defendant, arraigned by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), allegedly misappropriated the sum of N900,000 given to him by one Mohammad Alhaji Modu to buy a house for a widow, Yakura Zara, and her three children.
The offence contravened Section 311 of the Penal Code Act Cap. 102 Laws of the Borno State of Nigeria and punishable under Section 312 of the same law.
The convict pleaded guilty to the one count charge when it was read to him.
Based on his plea, the prosecution counsel, Mukhtar Ali Ahmed, sought leave of the court to review the facts of the case and consequently called the prosecution witness, Abubakar Hassan, a detective in the Intelligence Special Operation Section (ISOS) of the EFCC.
Hassan told the court that Kyari was entrusted with the said sum with a directive from the complainant to send the money to one Abdullahi Yahaya.
He said, ”The accused refused to send the money as instructed by the complainant which prompted the complainant to write a petition against the accused.
“After receiving the petition, we invited the petitioner and he reported to the office and he adopted his petition and gave a written statement.
“In the course of investigation, we invited the accused person and he reported to the office and we had an interview with him and he wrote three different statements through his lawyer, where he admitted collecting the sum of N900,000.00 from the complainant.”
Hassan disclosed that the convict only sent N345,000 to the intended recipient and squandered the rest of the money but N505,000 was recovered from him during investigation.
The statements of the convict and the petition against him were tendered and admitted in evidence.
Justice Fadawu, after listening to the review of the case, found the defendant guilty of the offence and convicted him accordingly.
He, however, adjourned the matter until January 11, 2021, for sentencing.