The Bauchi State High Court sitting in Bauchi has convicted and sentenced one Ibrahim Abdullahi to one year imprisonment for stealing the sum of N30,000 through fraudulent swapping of an Automated Teller Machine (ATM) card.

Abdullahi was arraigned on two-count charges of stealing by the Gombe Zonal Command of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

One of the charges read: “That you Ibrahim Abdullahi, sometime in September 2023 or thereabout at Bauchi, Bauchi State, within the jurisdiction of this honorable court, committed theft of N30,000.00 (Thirty Thousand Naira) by taking it out of the possession of Zainab Usman, through the use of her ATM card contrary the Section 287 of the Penal Code Law.”

He pleaded guilty to the charges, prompting the EFCC counsel, A.B. Kware, to pray the court to convict and sentence him accordingly, while his counsel, Jamilu Salihu, pleaded with the court to temper justice with mercy as his client, he said, was a first- time offender who has promised to turn a new leaf.

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The presiding judge, Justice M.A Shambu, on Thursday, December 14, 2023, however, convicted and sentenced Abdullahi to one year imprisonment or to pay a fine of N20,000  and restitute the sum of N30,000 to his victim.

Abdullahi’s journey to the correctional centre began when a petitioner alleged that on November 22 , 2023,  she got a  debit alert of N30,000 from her bank account, having earlier in the day, gone to the bank to make a withdrawal where she met the convict, who offered to assist her operate the ATM.

The EFCC disclosed that upon releasing her card to him, Abdullahi slotted it in the machine and claimed the transaction was “unsuccessful” and returned the card to her.

The anti-graft agency stated that the woman, shortly after she got home, got a debit alert of N30,000 and also discovered that the card Abdullahi returned to her was not hers.

“Upon arrest and interrogation, Abdullahi confessed that he relocated from Kano State to Bauchi State to engage in ATM card swapping to raise money for his planned wedding.

“He further revealed that he perfected the swapping act, all by himself; adding that the five different ATM cards found in his possession belonged to his victims,” the EFCC spokesperson, Dele Oyewale, said in a statement issued on Friday, December 22, 2023.

The Star