Man Bags 14 Years Jail Term Over N220,000

A Federal High Court in Kano on Wednesday, 2 July, 2014, sentenced a young man, named Stephen Onyekachi, to 14 years of imprisonment.

PMNEWS reports that the accused was arraigned by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, on 6 June, 2013, on a 3-count charge of allegedly obtaining the sum of N220,000 from one Auwal Shehu Garba under the pretext that he had a solar indicator for sale.

It was gathered that Onyekachi approached the complainant through a phone call and offered him a business deal after which Garba allegedly made a payment of N200,000 and also sent him MTN recharge card worth N20,000.

After listening to counsel of the defendant and the prosecutor, Justice Riman sentenced the accused to seven years imprisonment on counts one and three while count two was dismissed for lack of documentary evidence.

The judge also ordered Onyekachi to pay the sum of N220,000 in restitution to the victim.

* Onyekachi

One of the counts read, “that you Stephen Onyekachi (Alias Steven Onyero) and others (now at large) on or about 20th January, 2012 at Kano, within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court with intent to defraud obtained from one Auwal Shehu Garba, the sum of N200, 000 (Two Hundred Thousand Naira Only) via Stephen Onyekachi’s account domiciled at United Bank For Africa account number 2047444748, thereby committed an offence contrary to section 8(b) of the Advance Fee Fraud and Other Fraud Related Offences Act 2006 and punishable under section 1(3) of the same Act”. 

* The accused fraudster

Financial fraud cases are not new in Nigeria.

Less than a month ago, no fewer than 100 gullible land buyers were defrauded by a fake land speculator, Muyiwa Akinwande in Lagos, western Nigeria.

The 36-year-old man was detained by the police at Ikotun Division after he illegally obtained money from at least 100 people by deception. 

It was reported that in order to prove that he was a genuine land speculator, Akinwande showed fake documents with the name of a registered company Future Gate Resources. 

According to the victims, once they arranged to meet at the appointed time at the designated location in Ogun State where the seller presented them some pieces of land to them, the actual land owner appeared.

The matter was reported to the police who arrested Akinwande and charged him to court.

Source: Legit.ng