A self-proclaimed director of the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation Limited (NNPCL), Ibrahim Shuaibu, has been remanded in prison custody for allegedly perpetrating a N100 million fraud.
According to a statement by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), the Kaduna Zonal Directorate of the Commission arraigned Shuaibu before Justice Darius Khobo of the Kaduna State High Court, sitting in Kaduna State, on a seven-count charge of criminal breach of trust, impersonation, and obtaining by false pretence.
The EFCC alleges that in 2017, Shuaibu falsely presented himself to his victim as the Group Executive Director of NNPCL and promised to assist him in procuring over 2000 litres of petroleum products.
The victim, believing Shuaibu’s false claims, transferred the agreed cost of the products to his bank accounts in multiple tranches.
However, Shuaibu failed to fulfill his obligations and did not deliver the petroleum products as promised.
Despite receiving the payment, he refused to refund the victim’s money, leading to a loss of N100 million.
Count one of his charges reads: “That you, Nuhu Ibrahim Shuaibu (a.k.a Ishaku Abdulrazak) (M) and lIya Garba (now deceased) sometime in 2017 in Kaduna within the judicial division of this honourable court did conspire between yourselves to do an illegal act, to wit: obtaining money under false pretence and thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 8(a) of the Advance Fee Fraud and Other Fraud Related Offences Act, 2006 and punishable under Section 1(3) of the same Act.”
Another reads: “That you, Nuhu Ibrahim Shuaibu (a.k.a Ishaku Abdulrazak)(M) sometime in 2018 at Kaduna within the judicial division of this honourable court, with intent to defraud, obtained the total sum of N47,050,000.00 (Forty-Seven Million and Fifty Thousand Naira) from one Faisal Safiyanu, when you claimed to supply him petroleum products, which pretence you knew to be false and thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 1(1)(a) of the Advance Fee Fraud and Other Fraud Related Offenses Act 2006 and punishable under Section 1(3) of the same Act.”
When the charges were read to him, the defendant entered a plea of “not guilty” to all counts, leading the prosecution counsel, M. Lawal, to request that the court schedule a trial date.
Meanwhile, the defendant’s counsel, AbdulKareem Audu, did not file an application for bail on behalf of his client.