Justice Peter Kekemeke of an FCT High Court on Tuesday sentenced a fake investigator, Mohammed Momoh, to seven years imprisonment for defrauding Mrs Mairo T. Almakura, wife of the former governor of Nasarawa State.
Kekemeke sentenced Momoh based on the charge preferred against him by the Economic and financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) bordering on false pretences.
Kekemeke sentenced Momoh after listening to formal statements by his counsel, Godwin Omagbogu, on his behalf.
Omagbogu had pleaded for leniency on behalf of his client, saying he was a first time offender and father to three little children and a young wife.
The prosecution counsel, Diana Nkwap, however urged the court to use it’s discretion in sentencing.
The judge held that the punishment under which the defendant is charged attracts 20 years imprisonment maximum and seven years minimum.
However, Kekemeke held that the convict is sentenced to seven years imprisonment because he must do what the law stipulates.
The judge on February 27, convicted Momoh when he held that the prosecution proved its case beyond the reasonable doubt to warrant them to have the judgment in their favour after calling three witnesses.
Momoh was arrested in December 2017 by operatives of the EFCC for attempting to defraud Mairo Al makura.
The EFCC alleged that the suspect, while posing as a private investigator from the “Villa” approached the wife of the governor with a proposal to help stop a purported investigation of two accounts belonging to the governor.
The anti graft agency said Momoh claimed that he came across information regarding the two accounts in 2011.
The EFCC said the defendant requested for N8 million but was offered N6 million. Not clear about the proposal, the governor’s family contacted the EFCC and were asked to play along with the defendant.
The defendant was arrested during a sting operation after he collected marked N2 million from Al Makura.
According to the EFCC, the offence is contrary to Section 1(1)(a) and punishable under Section 1(3) of the Advance Fee Fraud and Other Fraud Related Offences Act No. 14 of 2006.
The one count charge read as follows “Muhammed Momoh, on or about the 22nd day of December,2017 in Abuja, within the jurisdiction of this honourable court, did with intent to defraud, obtained the sum of N2m from one Hajia Mairo Tanko Al-Makura through Idris Ahmed
Al-makura under the pretext that you are a private investigator with capacity to help the said Hajia Mairo Tanko Al-Makura resolve her case with the EFCC which you knew to be false.”
The defendant however pleaded not guilty to the charge.