Justice Mallong Peter of the Federal High Court, Kaduna, on Wednesday sentenced one Musa Yusuf to three months’ imprisonment for attempted N10 million fraud.
Gfhnews reports that Yusuf was prosecuted by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on a count charge of fraud.
Peter sentenced Yusuf after he pleaded guilty.
The judge, however, gave him an option of N200,000 fine.
“This sentence is to serve as a deterrent and punishment for the offence he committed knowingly,” the judge held, warning him not to indulge in any further act of criminality.
Counsel to EFCC, S. H. Sa’ad, had told the court that Yusuf was arrested when operatives of the commission acted on intelligence report indicating that he engaged in fraudulent activities.
Sa’ad said that the convict alongside others at large, forged and impersonated documents purportedly emanating from different organisations, where they claimed to be engineers and members of reputable occupations.
The charge against him states in part: “That you, Musa Yusuf, sometime in 2019 in Kaduna, within the jurisdiction of the High Court of Kaduna State, did, with intent to defraud, attempted to commit an offence to wit: Cheating against one Abdulàzeez Yunus by sending him scam mails using your Instagram, FaceBook and plenty of phishing e-mail addresses.
“You, Yusuf was posing as one Thomas Brooks, with the aim of obtaining financial benefit for yourself and thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 57 of the Kaduna State Penal Code, 2017 and punishable under the same Section.”
