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Judge sentences fraudster to 690 years

By Kayode Ketefe

Justice Morenike Obadina of the Ikeja High Court on Friday sentenced a man, Alhaji Danladi Usman, to 690 years imprisonment for defrauding some persons through false pretences.

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Usman was convicted with three of his aides: Emmanuel Imohiosan, Adewale Balogun and Valentine Nwogu for obtaining N26m by false pretences from individuals and companies between February and November 2003..

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission had arraigned the accused on an 83-count charge in September 2004.

Imohiosan was sentenced to 605 years while Balogun got 600 years just as Nwogu was sentenced to 420 years.

The judge convicted the accused after she found them guilty of financial crimes.

Since the sentences were made to run concurrently, each of the accused would spend the highest of the each of the count of sentences in prison.

This means that each of the accused would spend a maximum of 10 years behind bars. The sentences were also made to run from September 2004 when the accused were first arraigned.

Their victims included Mrs. Helen Okolo of Lenob Petroleum Engineering Services from whom they obtained millions of litres of petroleum at different dates under the pretence that an order was placed for the product by the Federal Housing Authority.

The accused persons also forged a number of documents to facilitate the fraud.

In her judgment, Justice Obadina held that the testimonies by the prosecution witnesses against the accused were credible and dismissed the defence of the accused as being inconsistent and ‘a cock and bull story.‘

She said, ”I watched the demeanor of the accused persons throughout the trial. The first accused person (Alhaji Usman) was totally unrepentant. He was the kingpin of this monumental fraud.

“He found willing tools in the other accused persons. He carefully planned and executed this fraud. Not only was he using the Federal Secretariat Office, he also drove Federal Government of Nigeria official car.”