An ex-Borno State judiciary officer, Ramat Mohammed (alias Gaddafi), has been sentenced to 16 years imprisonment for defrauding 194 widows.
Justice Umaru Fadawu of the Borno State High Court handed down the judgement on Tuesday after Mohammed was found guilty of a two-count amended charge bordering on defrauding the widows to the tune of N781,800.00.
The Maiduguri Zonal office of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) had earlier arraigned the convict for obtaining by false pretence, Advance Fee Fraud and other fraud-related offences.
The anti-graft agency alleged that Mohammed forged and sold a Food Collection Card, in the name of a Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO), to his victims and failed to deliver food items to them.
Count one of the charges read: “That you, Ramat Mohammed (alias Gaddafi), sometime in December, 2018 at Maiduguri, Borno State within the jurisdiction of this honourable court with intent to defraud obtained the gross sum of N520,000.00 (Five Hundred and Twenty Thousand Naira) only from 40 (Forty) women (mostly widows) of Fissabi-lillah Islamic School, under the false pretence that the entire sum represent payments for registration/eligibility for a programme by a Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO), Action Against Hunger (A.A.H), at Auno Town of Konduga L.G.A, Borno State, which payment will entitle the said women to be issued a special card for various food items, which 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, 2006 and punishable under Section 1(3) of the same Act.”
Mohammed subsequently pleaded guilty to the charges.
Justice Fadawu therefore sentenced the convict to eight years imprisonment on each count and ordered that the prison terms should run concurrently.