Justice Zuwaira Yusuf of the Kano State High Court has convicted and sentenced Salim Mohammed Sarki, Sani M. Auwalu, Bashir Bashir Nasidi, Aliyu Mika’il Muhammed and Yahaya Abdullahi Abubakar (Shoki) to two weeks imprisonment for conspiring to steal the sum of N1, 398,972.19.
The convicts’ journey to prison started when the Commission received a petition, alleging that an account was opened in his name in a new generation bank without his knowledge or consent. The petitioner further alleged that the said account was being used to perpetrate fraud, adding that he.
was arrested by the police upon his arrival at Jaiz Bank to conduct a transaction and subsequently charged to court.
Upon receipt of the petition, the Commission commenced investigation which subsequently revealed that the son of the complainant, Sani Awwal stole his father’s ATM card and SIM card and used the same to steal N100,000 from the bank account of his father. He perpetrated the theft with the help of the other defendants.
However, one of the defendants, Salim Mohammed Sarki used the SIM card and generated the Bank Verification Number of the complaint and used the same to upon another account in the bank for purposes of warehousing stolen money.
Consequently, Salim used the new bank account to receive the sum of N1, 298,972.19 from different victims.
All the defendants pleaded guilty to the six counts when they were read to them.
One of the charge read “That you, SALIM MOHAMMED SARKI (M), SANI M. AUWALU (M), BASHIR BASHIR NASIDI (M), YAHAYA ABDULYAHI ABUBAKAR (SHOKI) (M), and ALIYU MIKA’IL MUHAMMED on or about 5′ April, 2021, within the jurisdiction of the High Court of Justice, Kano did an illegal act, to wit; conspired to open and use Ja’iz bank account with number 0008334796 in the name of Auwal Ya’u which was used to defraud unsuspecting individuals including Auwal Ya’u and thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 96 and punishable under Section 287 of the Penal Code Law.”
In view of their pleas, prosecution counsel, B. M Buhari asked the court to convict them accordingly.
Subsequently, Justice Yusuf convicted and sentenced the defendants to two weeks non-custodial prison term each.
The court also ordered them to sweep the premises of the Nigeria Immigration Service at Farm Centre for two weeks.
