Justice Aisha Kumaliya of the Borno State High Court has sentenced one Allen Abel to 125 years imprisonment for fraudulently defrauding a company, Lele Foresight Construction Company, to the tune of N12,879,800.
Punch Newspaper reports that Abel defrauded the company on the pretext of executing a contract for the Federal Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development under the school feeding scheme of the Social Intervention Programme of the Federal Government.
It was gathered that Abel was arraigned alongside Suleiman Adamu, Usman Adamu and Kingsley Madubuagu on July 2, 2020, by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), on 20 counts bordering on forgery, possession of false documents, impersonation and obtaining by false pretences.
They pleaded guilty to the charges and Justice Kumaliya convicted them and adjourned till Wednesday, September 30, 2020, for sentencing.
At the resumed hearing on Wednesday, Justice Kumaliya sentenced Abel to seven years imprisonment each on count one to six and count nine without an option of fine; five years imprisonment on each of count seven, eight and 11 to 20 without an option of fine. All sentences are to run concurrently.
The court, according to a statement by the Head of Media and Publicity, EFCC, Wilson Uwujaren, also ordered Abel to return the sum of N12,110,000 to Lele Foresight Construction Company and the sum of N769,800 to HIE Global Investment Limited.
One of the charges read, “That you, Allen Abel, Suleiman Adamu and Usman Adamu, sometime between February and March 2020 at Maiduguri, Borno State, within the jurisdiction of this honourable court, with intent to defraud, obtained 1,313 cartons of spaghetti and 480 bags of rice, both worth N12, 110,000 only from one Lelle Hyelwa Sini of Lelle Foresight Construction Company Limited under the false pretext of executing a contract of supply of food items purportedly awarded by the Federal Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development (Federal Government School Feeding Programme under the Social Intervention Programme), which you knew to be false, 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.”
