Court jails two for selling fake Patience Jonathan’s gold

Glory Ebomah

The Maiduguri Zonal Command of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, on Thursday, September 28, 2023, secured the conviction and sentencing of Goni Muhammad and Seidu Seriki Hamani to seven years imprisonment for offering fake gold belonging to former First Lady, Mrs Patience Jonathan to their victims.

They were arraigned on May 16, 2022, before Justice Aisha Kumaliya of the Borno State High Court, Maiduguri, on two counts bordering on conspiracy and obtaining under false pretence to the tune of N 26, 492,000 (Twenty-Six Million, Four Hundred and Ninety-Two Thousand Naira only).

One of the counts read: “That you, Goni Mohammad and Seidu Seriki Hamman sometime in January 2020 at Maiduguri, Borno State within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court, with intent to defraud, obtained 2 grams of gold at the rate of N26, 492,000.00 (Twenty Six Million Four Hundred and Ninety-Two Thousand Naira) allegedly belonging to the wife of the former President Dr Goodluck Ebele Jonathan under the false pretence which you knew to be false and thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 1(1) of the Advance Fee Fraud and other Fraud Related Offences Act 2006 and punishable under Section 1(3) of the same Act.”

The defendants pleaded ‘not guilty’ when the charges were read to them.  EFCC Counsel, Mukhtar Ali Ahmed presented three witnesses and tendered several documents as exhibits before the court.   However, defence counsel, H. Waziri prayed the court to temper justice with mercy and “consider their inability to secure bail after they were arraigned before the court”.

Justice Kumaliya, in her judgment, found them guilty, convicted and sentenced them on count one to seven years imprisonment each for the offence of conspiracy and seven years for the offence of obtaining under false pretence.  The jail terms are to commence from the day they were first arraigned and run concurrently.

Head, Media & Publicity, EFCC, Dele Oyewale, said the judge further ordered Muhammad to pay the balance of N16, 492,000.00 to his victim or serve an additional seven years imprisonment.

The convicts bagged their imprisonment when they were arrested by operatives of the Maiduguri Zonal Command of the EFCC, for conspiring and obtaining N26,492,000 from their victims under the guise of selling two grams of gold belonging to a former First Lady, Mrs Patience Goodluck Ebele Jonathan. They were charged to court and convicted.