A Chief Magistrate Court sitting in Birnin Kebbi, Kebbi State, has sentenced a man, Hamza Abdullahi, to three years imprisonment for defrauding 175 women of N5.4 million under the guise of securing government jobs for them.
The convict was arraigned before Chief Magistrate Court I on charges bordering on obtaining money under false pretences after allegedly deceiving the women with promises of employment as cooks in government establishments.
During the trial, the state prosecutor, Aminu Diri, told the court that Abdullahi’s actions contravened Section 140 of the Kebbi Administration of Criminal Justice Law and Section 341 of the Penal Code.
At the resumed hearing on Thursday, defence counsel, Bashar Zakari, pleaded with the court to temper justice with mercy, arguing that the defendant was a first-time offender.
Zakari urged the court to consider imposing a fine instead of a custodial sentence.
Responding, the prosecutor did not oppose the plea for leniency but insisted that justice must be served considering the hardship suffered by the victims.
According to him, the N5.4 million collected from the complainants had yet to be recovered.
“The complainants’ N5.4 million is still unrecovered. If retrieved, it will bring relief and also serve as a deterrent to others,” Diri told the court.
The prosecutor further noted that the matter had suffered several adjournments at the instance of the defendant, who repeatedly sought more time to refund the money but failed to do so.
Delivering judgment, Chief Magistrate Abdullahi Koko said the court carefully considered the submissions of both the prosecution and defence before arriving at its decision.
The magistrate lamented the suffering inflicted on the victims, many of whom were widows, divorcees and minors struggling to survive.
“I don’t think the defendant’s name should be hidden among defrauders, swindlers, cheats and fraudsters,” the magistrate declared.
The court also disclosed that efforts were made to identify properties belonging to the convict that could be sold to compensate the victims, but no asset was found in his name as he still resided in his family house.
Koko subsequently sentenced Abdullahi to one year imprisonment under Section 341 of the Kebbi Criminal Justice Law Reform and Section 140 of the Penal Code for obtaining money under false pretence.
The court further handed him another one-year jail term for depriving the complainants of their means of livelihood.
In addition, the magistrate ordered that the convict would serve an extra one-year imprisonment should he fail to repay the N5.4 million fraudulently obtained from the victims.
Reacting to the judgment, the defence counsel thanked the court for what he described as leniency in sentencing the convict.
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