A serial fraudster, Alen Abel, has been jailed for 15 years by Justice Umaru Fadawu of the Borno State High Court, sitting in Maiduguri, for obtaining N4.065 million under false pretence.
The judgement was pronounced on Friday, July 16, 2021, by Justice Fadawu.
The offence is contrary to Section 1 (1) (a) of the Advance Fee Fraud and Other Related Offences Act, 2006 and punishable under Section 1 (3) of the same Act.
The convict was arraigned on Wednesday, July 14 by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on two separate one-count charge, its Head of Media and Publicity, Wilson Uwujaren, disclosed in a statement.
One of the charge read: “That you Alen Abel, sometimes in May 2020 at Maiduguri, within the jurisdiction of this honourable court, with intent to defraud, did obtain One Hundred (100) bags of rice worth N900,000.00 (Nine Hundred Thousand Naira) only from Saaqndo Orseer Emmanuel under the pretence of executing a contract of supply of food items, purportedly awarded by Federal Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Disaster Management (Federal Government School Feeding Programme), under the Special Intervention Programme (SIP), which you knew to be false and thereby committed an offence, contrary to Section 1(1) (a) of the Advance Fee Fraud and Other Related Offences Act, 2006 and punishable under Section 1 (3) of the same Act.”
The other charge read: “That you Alen Abel, sometimes in May 2020 at Maiduguri within the jurisdiction of this honourable court with intent to defraud did obtain 25kg of Spaghetti at N2,900 (Two Thousand, Nine Hundred Naira) only per carton and twenty bags of rice at N16,000 (Sixteen Thousand Naira) only per bag worth N3,165,000.00 million (Three Million, One Hundred and Sixty-five Thousand Naira) from Sontanimen Orison Nyigngo under the pretence of executing a contract of supply of food items, purportedly awarded by Federal Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Disaster Management And Social Development (Federal Government School Feeding Programme), under the Special Intervention Programme (SIP), which you knew to be false and thereby committed an offence, contrary to Section 1 (1) (a) of the Advance Fee Fraud and Other Related Offences Act, 2006 and punishable under Section 1 (3) of the same Act.”
The convict had pleaded guilty to the separate charges preferred against him by the EFCC.
Upon his plea, the prosecution counsel, Mukhtar Ali Ahmed, through Buba Abdul, an operative of the EFCC, reviewed the facts of the case and prayed the court to convict and sentence Abel as charged.
Justice Fadawu, after listening to the prayer of the prosecution, convicted the defendant and sentenced him to eight and seven years imprisonment on the respective charge.
He ordered that the jail term should be served consecutively.
Justice Fadawu also ordered the convict to pay N4.065 million in restitution, and in the event whereby he would fail to obey the restitution order, he should serve five years jail term each on the two separate charges.
