EFCC Arraigns Suspect for Land Racketeering in Maiduguri

On Wednesday, November 27, 2024, the Maiduguri Zonal Directorate of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) arraigned Bukar Umar Alhaji before Justice Muhammad Maina of the Borno State High Court, Maiduguri. Alhaji faces two counts of obtaining money by false pretense and criminal misappropriation, amounting to N2,100,000 (Two Million One Hundred Thousand Naira).

The first count reads: “That you, Bukar Umar Alhaji, with National Identification Number (NIN) 9584243514, and Babagoni Umar (who is currently at large), sometime in March 2022, in Maiduguri, Borno State, within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court, did, with intent to defraud, obtain the sum of N2,100,000.00 (Two Million One Hundred Thousand Naira) from Ibrahim Ismail under the pretense that the said amount was for the sale of two plots of land located in Mafa Local Government Area, Borno State, which you knew to be false. You thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 1(1)(a) & (b) of the Advance Fee Fraud and Other Fraud-Related Offences Act, 2005, and punishable under Section 1(3) of the same Act.”

When the charges were read to him, the defendant pleaded “not guilty.”

Prosecution counsel, Faruk Muhammad, requested a trial date and asked the court to remand the defendant in prison custody. In response, Justice Maina adjourned the case until December 4, 2023, for the commencement of trial and ordered that the defendant be remanded in the Maiduguri Maximum Correctional Facility.

Alhaji’s legal troubles began after he sold two plots of land that did not belong to him and failed to return the money paid by the victim.