Court jails police, immigration officers for N1.6m employment fraud

The Federal High Court sitting in Gombe, the Gombe State capital, has convicted and sentenced two police officers, Yusuf AbdulKarim Bature and Musa Philip, and an immigration officer, Nasiru Mohammed, to seven years imprisonment each for employment fraud to the tune of N1,640,000.

Bature and Philip were arraigned on two-count charges of obtaining by false pretences and intent to defraud while Mohammed was arraigned on one-count charge of obtaining by false pretences by the Gombe Zonal Directorate of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

Count one of the charges against Yusuf AbdulKarim Bature and Musa Philip read: “That you Yusuf Abdul Karim Bature and Musa Philip while being public officers with the Nigerian Police Force sometime in 2022 in Gombe within the Gombe Judicial division at the Federal High Court of Justice did with intent to defraud falsely obtained from one Asabe Hamed the total sum of N970,000 for the purpose of securing a job, a claim you knew to be false”.

Upon arraignment, the defendants pleaded guilty to their respective charges.

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Following their guilty pleas, prosecution counsel Tortema Joshua prayed the court to convict and sentence the defendants accordingly but counsels for the defendants, Babangida Mohammed and K.K. Jomoh, pleaded with the court to temper justice with mercy, saying the defendants were first-time offenders who are remorseful of their actions.

The presiding judge, Justice T.G. Ringing, on Tuesday, November 26, 2024, convicted and sentenced Bature, Philip, and Mohammed to seven years imprisonment each or a fine of N50,000 each.

Justice Ringing also ordered the convicts to pay restitution of N1,640,000 to the petitioners and sign an undertaking to be of good behaviour henceforth.

The EFCC further stated that the convicts’ journey to the correctional centre began on February 8, 2024, when some petitioners alleged that Bature and Philip collected N970,000 while Mohammed collected N670,000 as payment for employment slots.

“The convicts neither offered the petitioners the jobs nor returned their money to them,” the EFCC noted.

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Segun Ojo

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