A federal high court in Gombe State has sentenced two erring police officers and an immigration officer to seven years imprisonment each for employment fraud to the tune of N1,640,000.

The names of the sentenced officers are Yusuf AbdulKarim Bature and Musa Philip of the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) and Nasiru Mohammed of the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS).

The court hearing was presided over by Justice T.G Ringing on Tuesday.

The three officers were taken to court on February 8, 2024, after some petitioners accused them of collecting hundreds and thousands of naira from them for employment slots, which they failed to deliver and refused to refund the money collected.

The two police officers were arraigned in court on two-count of obtaining false pretenses and intent to defraud. On the other hand, Mohammed, the immigration officer, was arraigned in court by the Gombe Zonal Directorate of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on a one-count of obtaining under false pretenses.

Bature and Phillip were said to have obtained N970,000 to secure a job from one Asabe Hamed in 2022.

“That you Yusuf Abdul karim.Bature and Musa Philip, while being public officers with the Nigerian Police Force sometime in 2022 in Gombe within the Gombe Judicial division at the Federal High Court of Justice did with intent to defraud falsely obtained from one Asabe Hamed the total sum of ?970,000 to secure a job, a claim you knew to be false,” a count on of the charges against Bature and Phillip read.

Nasiru had also obtained the sum of N670,000 from Abdul Rahman Abubakar and Akwalo Adamu under the false pretence of securing them a job with the Nigerian Immigration Service.

“That you Nasiru Mohammed sometime in 2022 in Gombe within the jurisdiction of this honourable court while being a staff of the Nigerian Immigration Service did falsely obtained the sum of Six Hundred and Seventy Thousand Naira (N670,000) from Abdul Rahman Abubakar and Akwalo Adamu under the false pretence of securing them a job with the Nigerian Immigration service which 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 Offences Act 2006 and punishable under Section 1(3) of the same Act,” the charge against Mohammed read.

Bature, Phillip and Mohammed both pleaded guilty to their charges in court.

While delivering his judgment in a court hearing, Justice T.G. Ringing convicted and sentenced Bature, Philip, and Mohammed to seven years imprisonment each or a fine of N50,000 each.

The judge also ordered them to make restitution of N1,640,000 to the petitioners and signed an undertaking to be of good behaviour. (The Guardian)