Court jails BDC operators for three years in Kano

Glory Ebomah

Justice Mohammed Nasir Yunusa of the Federal High Court, Kano, on Wednesday, February 28, 2024, convicted and sentenced three illegal bureau de change operators to three years imprisonment for operating without a requisite licence.

The convicts: Umar Ibrahim Muhammad, Abubakar Yakubu Garba and Muhammad Tijjani were jailed after pleading guilty to one-count separate charges of illegal dealing in foreign currency without an appropriate licence.

The lone-count charge reads: “That you Ibrahim Muhammad, sometime in February 2024 in Kano within the jurisdiction of this honourable court did engage in a financial operation of bureau de change without a valid licence and you thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 57 (5) of the Banks and Other Financial Institutions Act 2020 and punishable under Section 57 (5) (B) of the same Act.”

Head, Media and Publicity, EFCC, Dele Oyewale, said on Friday, 1 March 2024 that all the suspects pleaded “guilty” to the charge read to them in English and interpreted in Hausa, upon which prosecution counsel, Aisha Tahar Habib prayed the court to convict and sentence them accordingly, while the defence counsel pleaded for mercy and leniency.

Justice Yunusa thereafter convicted and sentenced Muhammad, Garba and Tijani to one-year imprisonment each with an option of a fine of N100,000(One Hundred Thousand Naira) each.

Their road to jail began when they were arrested by operatives of the Kano Command of the EFCC for operating a BDC without an appropriate licence.