Court Jails Court Official 6months for Forgery
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, Gombe Zonal office has secured the conviction of one Usman Muhammad Dajji before Justice Sa’ad Muhammad of the Gombe State High Court, on a two-count charge of obtaining by false pretence and forgery.
Dajji, an official of Gombe State Sharia Court of Appeal staff Multipurpose Cooperative Society was investigated by the EFCC in February, 2017 following a petition by one Sani Abdullahi of Sam Omosco Nigeria Limited, Gombe.
Abdullahi alleged that Dajjii, sometimes in December 2013 approached his company (Sam Omosco, which specialises in computer supplies and accessories) with a contract proposal to supply 3,000 Units of Computer Laptop to the Sharia Court of Appeal Cooperative Society with a condition that a sum of N550,000 must be paid as commitement and processing fee before the execution of the contract.
According to the petitioner, the money was paid after all documents relating to the contract were presented. Unknown to Abdullahi, the documents presented to him by Dajji were forged. The convict forged the official stamp of the Chief Registrar Sharia Court of Appeal, Gombe as well as the signature of one Abubakar Aliyu, who was the Cooperative Society ‘s Treasurer to win the contract and diverted the money to personal use.
The offence contravenes the provisions of Section 320 (a) and (b) of the Penal Code and Punishable under Section 322 of the same Law.
The accused pleaded guilty to the charge.
In view of Dajji’s admittance of guilt, the prosecution counsel, S. M. Aliyu urged the court to convict and sentence him according to the dictates of the law.
In his judgement, Justice Sa’ad pronounced the accused person guilty as charged, and sentenced him to six months imprisonment on the two counts. He, however, gave the convict an option of N30,000 fine.
