Court Sentences Businessman to Jail for N1.1m Fraud in Maiduguri

On Tuesday, November 5, 2024, Justice Aisha Kumaliya of the Borno State High Court, Maiduguri, convicted and sentenced Ali Bukar Jidda to six months in prison for the misappropriation of funds amounting to N1,126,000 (One Million, One Hundred and Twenty-Six Thousand Naira).

Jidda was arraigned by the Maiduguri Zonal Directorate of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on a one-count charge of dishonestly misappropriating the said sum.

The charge read: “That you, Ali Bukar Jidda, sometime in June 2020, in Maiduguri, Borno State, were entrusted with the sum of N1,126,000 by Umar Odo Soja for the supply of food items, but you dishonestly misappropriated the funds, thereby committing an offence under Section 311 of the Penal Code Act Cap 102, Laws of Borno State, punishable under Section 312 of the same law.”

Upon being read the charge, the defendant pleaded guilty.

During the sentencing phase, prosecution counsel S.O. Saka urged the court to convict Jidda as charged, while the defendant’s counsel, A.M. Umar, requested leniency, pleading for the court to temper justice with mercy.

In her ruling, Justice Kumaliya convicted Jidda and imposed a fine of N100,000 (One Hundred Thousand Naira) or, in default of payment, a six-month prison sentence. As the defendant failed to pay the fine, he was sentenced to six months in prison.

The conviction stemmed from Jidda’s failure to deliver the food items for which he had been entrusted with N1.1 million, nor did he return the funds to the complainant.