‘Mama Boko Haram’ Sentenced To Prison Over Alleged N40 Million Fraud

The trio of Aisha Alkali Wakil (also known as Mama Boko Haram), Tahiru Saidu Daura, and Prince Lawal Soyade, have been sentenced to ten years in prison over alleged fraud.

Naija News reports that Mama Boko Haram and her accomplices were found guilty after being brought before Justice Umaru Fadawu of the Borno State High Court by the Maiduguri Zonal Command of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on Thursday, March 5, 2020.

They faced charges of conspiracy and obtaining money under false pretences amounting to N40m. This information was disclosed by Dele Oyewale, the spokesperson for the commission.

Count two of the charge against them reads: “That you, Aisha Alkali Wakil, Tahiru Alhaji Saidu Daura and Prince Lawal Shoyade, whilst being the Chief Executive Officer, Programme Manager, and Country Director respectively of Complete Care and Aid Foundation, (a Non-Governmental Organisation) and Saidu Mukhtar (At large) sometime in Maiduguri, Borno State within the Jurisdiction of this Honourable Court did with intent to defraud obtained the sum of Forty Million Naira (N40, 000, 000.00) from one Bashir Abubakar, the Chief Executive Officer of Duty-Free Shop Ltd under the false pretence of executing a purported contract for the supply of Five (5) X-ray Machines 1900 with Solar Energy which you knew to be false and thereby committed an offence contrary to Section (1) 1 (b) of the Advance Fee Fraud and other Fraud Related Offences Act, 2006 and punishable under Section 1(3) of the same Act.”

The defendants, however, pleaded not guilty when the charges were read to them at the court sitting on Monday, February 12.

The prosecution counsel, A.I, Arogha, called upon four witnesses and submitted seventeen exhibits during the trial.

As a result, Justice Fadawu found the defendants guilty of conspiracy and sentenced them to ten years in prison.

Additionally, the court imposed a ten-year imprisonment term for the offence of obtaining by false pretence.

Furthermore, the defendants were instructed to collectively and individually pay Bashir Muhammad the amount of N40 million.

“The prison term shall run concurrently on the expiration of all prison terms imposed on the convicts by any court”, the Judge said.

Naija News reports that the convicts’ journey to the Correctional Centre began when a petitioner alleged that they swindled him through a purported contract for the supply of five (5) X-ray Machines 1900 with Solar Energy to a Non-Governmental Organisation, NGO, Complete Care and Aid Foundation, worth N40m.

They neither supplied the machines nor returned the contract sum to the petitioner.