One Mohammed Isah was Wednesday sentenced to two years imprisonment for defrauding the Anambra and Ondo states Commissioners of Police, CP, of N154,000.
An Ikeja Magistrates’ Court, Lagos State, held that Isah was guilty of the offence and handed him the sentence without option of fine.
While the convict defrauded the Anambra CP to the tune of N150,000, the Ondo State CP was duped of N4,000.
The Katsina state-born convict, according to reports, had gone to the Lagos State Police Command’s X-Squad Department in Ikeja to complain that some policemen attached to the Rapid Response Squad collected N188, 200 from him.
Isah, who was immediately arrested, had reportedly implicated policemen in Ondo and Anambra states by taking the number plates of their patrol vehicles to the state police headquarters on the claims that they extorted money from him.
The 26-year-old convict was said to have operated in Anambra, Ondo and Lagos states between June and December 7, 2015, before he was arrested by the police in Lagos.
One ACP Edward Ajogun, a police officer, who was believed to have served in the Ondo Police Command before he was transferred to Lagos in September, reportedly met the convict making the complaint.
According to Ajogun, he had witnessed a similar scenario of the convict framing some policemen in Ondo with the sole aim of getting compensated.
Isah, who had used a false name, Musa Mulamba, also accused a team of six policemen on patrol in Akure, Ondo State, of extorting N140, 000 from him. But the state CP gave him N4, 000 for reporting the matter to the command and the Anambra CP had paid him N150,000 after he alleged that the cops from the command swindled him of N270,000.
It was gathered that the allegation reportedly led to the dismissal of the six cops.
On December 12, Isah who was arraigned before the court’s Chief Magistrate, Mrs. O.A. Olayinka, had pleaded guilty to the three count charges bordering on fraud.
The charges read in part, “That you, Mohammed Isah, between June 2015 and December 2015, did falsely accuse the patrol team police officers of Anambra, Ondo and Lagos states commands of extorting the sum of N270, 000, N140, 000 and N188, 200, from you respectively, thereby committing an offence punishable under sections 93, 95, 96 (a) (b) of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, Nigeria, 2011.
“That you did fraudulently obtain the sum of N150,000 and N4,000 from the Anambra and Ondo states CPs respectively, thereby committing an offence punishable under Section 312 (a) (b) (2) and (3) of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, Nigeria, 2011.”
Isah was however, sentenced to two years in prison for each of the three counts.
The magistrate further ruled that the jail terms would run concurrently without option of fine.
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