Mama Boko Haram, Two Others Jailed Over N40m Fraud

Justice Umaru Fadawu of the Borno State High Court, sitting in Maiduguri on Monday convicted and sentenced Aisha Alkali Wakil, popularly known as Mama Boko Haram, Tahiru Saidu Daura and Prince Lawal Soyade to 10 years imprisonment.

This followed their arraignment by the Maiduguri Zonal Command of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission.

They were arraigned on March 5, 2020 on a two-count charge bordering on conspiracy and obtaining by false pretence to the tune of N40 million.

Count two of the charges reads: “That you Aisha Alkali Wakil, Tahiru Alhaji Saidu Daura and Prince Lawal Shoyade whilst being the Chief Executive Officer, Programme Manager, and Country Director respectively of Complete Care and Aid Foundation, (a Non-Governmental Organisation) and Saidu Mukhtar (At large) sometime in Maiduguri, Borno State within the Jurisdiction of this Honourable Court did with intent to defraud obtained the sum of Forty Million Naira (N40, 000, 000.00) from one Bashir Abubakar, the Chief Executive Officer of Duty Free Shop Ltd under the false pretence of executing a purported contract for the supply of Five (5) X-ray Machines 1900 with Solar Energy which you knew to be false and thereby committed an offence contrary to Section (1) 1 (b) of the Advance Fee Fraud and other Fraud Related Offences Act, 2006 and punishable under Section 1(3) of the same Act.”

The defendants pleaded “not guilty” when the charges were read to them.

Counsel for the prosecution counsel, A.I. Arogha, presented four witnesses and tendered seventeen exhibits before the court.

Consequently, Justice Fadawu convicted and sentenced them to 10 years imprisonment for the offence of conspiracy.

The court further sentenced the defendants to 10 years imprisonment for the offence of obtaining by false pretence and ordered them to jointly and severally pay the sum of N40 million to Bashir Muhammad.

“The prison term shall run concurrently on the expiration of all prison terms imposed on the convicts by any court,” the Judge ruled.

The convicts’ journey to the Correctional Centre began when a petitioner alleged that they swindled him through a purported contract for the supply of five X-ray Machines 1900 with Solar Energy to a Non-Governmental Organisation: Complete Care and Aid Foundation, worth N40 million.

They neither supplied the machines nor returned the contract sum to the petitioner.