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EFCC arraigns two for N12.9m fraud in Maiduguri

The Maiduguri Zonal Command of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, has arraigned Babakura Muhammad Nur and Kaltum Mustapha for criminal misappropriation of N12,950,000.

They were arraigned separately on Monday before Justice Aisha Kumaliya of the Borno State High Court on a count charge of criminal misappropriation and cheating.

The count against Nur reads: โ€œThat you, Baba Kura Muhammad Nur, on or about September 2021, in Maiduguri, Borno State, within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court dishonestly misappropriated and converted for your own use the sum of N11,600,000 (eleven million, six hundred thousand naira) being payment for foodstuffs belonging to Alhaji Usman Mohammed and you thereby committed an offence contrary to and punishable under sections 308 and 309 of the Penal Code Laws of Borno State (Cap 102 Vol. 3 of 1994) respectively.โ€

The charge against Mustapha reads: โ€œThat you, Kaltum Mustapha, sometime in June 2022 at Maiduguri, within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court, dishonestly induced the duo of Muhammad Lawan Sani Abubakar Umar and Yusuf Jafar to deliver to you the sum of N1,350,000 only for the supply of ready-to-use therapeutic RUTH (aka Tammua packages), which you are yet to pay and thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 320(a) and punishable under Section 322 of the penal Code cap 102 Laws of Borno State.โ€

The defendants pleaded โ€œnot guiltyโ€ to their separate charges.

Counsels for the prosecution, Mukhtar Ali Ahmad, S.O. Saka and A.D. Aliyu, prayed to the court for trial dates and to remand the defendants in prison custody.

However, counsel to the defendant, M. Abubakar, applied orally for the bail of his client, after which Justice Kumaliya admitted Mustapha to bail in the sum of N2 million and two sureties in like sum.

The judge ordered that one of the sureties must be her husband and the other staff of Borno State Civil Service, not below Level 10.

Justice Kumaliya adjourned the matters till May 27, 28 and 29, 2024, for the commencement of trial, while Nur was remanded in a correctional centre.