A Kwara State High Court in Ilorin yesterday sentenced a self-styled Alfa Jamiu to 28 years imprisonment in Mandala Correctional Centre, Ilorin, over offences bordering on fraud and obtaining by false pretence, contrary to Section 1(1) (a) of the Advance Fee Fraud and other Fraud Related Offences Act, 2006.
The Ilorin Zonal Command of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), had on June 14, 2019, arraigned the defendant on four counts, to which he pleaded not guilty.
Jamiu presented himself as the Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina, and a former Group Managing Director of the Nigerian
National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Maikanti Baru, to defraud a South Korean national, Keun Sig Kim, to the tune of N30 million.
The 33-year-old Jamiu, while parading himself as a senior government official, collected various sums of money from the foreign national under the pretext to secure for him an NNPC approval/ marketing form and licence certificate to buy crude oil in Nigeria.
In the course of interrogation, Jamiu claimed that he used the money to conduct sacrifice for the petitioner.
According to him, part of the money was used to buy vulture, elephant skin, elephant intestine, the skull of a lion and liver of gorilla used as items for the sacrifice.
In the course of the trial, counsel to the EFCC, O. B Akinsola, called two witnesses, including Detective Dare Folarin, who narrated how the defendant was arrested and how several fraudulent funds were traced to his bank accounts.
The prosecution tendered evidence on how Jamiu obtained the sum of $88,521.41 from his victim under the guise of helping him to procure an approval form from the NNPC.
The EFCC also gave an account of how the defendant impersonated some senior government officials, including the then Group Managing Director of the NNPC, Dr Maikanti Baru; National Commissioner of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Mrs Aminat Zakari; the Senior Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Adeshina, among others.
The defendant did not controvert the charge or the evidence tendered by the EFCC.
Delivering his ruling, Justice Mahmud Abdulgafar found Alfa Jamiu guilty of the four counts brought against him and sentenced him to seven years imprisonment on each count, which is to run concurrently.
In addition, the Judge ordered the forfeiture of some property recovered from the convict, which are proceeds of his unlawful activities.
They are a four bed-room bungalow located at Oke-Foma in Ilorin West Local Government Area of Kwara State; a Toyota Corolla, one plasma television, home theatre, freezer, generator, washing machine and an LG air conditioner, all forfeited to the federal government.
The court also ordered restitution to the victim of the crime.
