Ex-NPA staff jailed 14 years for N24.3 million waste bin fraud
The Ikeja Special Offences Court has sentenced a retired staff of the Nigeria Ports Authority (NPA), Nasiru Ogara, to 14 years imprisonment for engaging in N24.3 million waste bin and vehicle documents fraud.
Justice Mojisola Dada, while delivering the judgement on Wednesday, held that the prosecution effectively proved the ingredients of the offences filed against the retiree and his company, New Age Motor Waste Basket Ltd.
Mr Ogara and New Age Motor Waste Basket Ltd. were prosecuted by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on a four-count charge bordering on obtaining by false pretences and issuing dud cheques.
Ms Dada found the defendants guilty on counts one, two, and three and sentenced Mr Ogara to 14 years in prison on counts one and two.
She sentenced the retiree to two years jail term on count three.
The judge, however, discharged the defendants on count four.
She held that the sentences should run concurrently.
The judge imposed a fine of N15 million on the retiree’s company (N5 million naira each on counts one to three).
She also ordered that the company be wound up, its assets sold, and the proceeds used to pay the complainant.
The judge ordered the retiree to restitute N24.3 million to the complainant.
According to EFCC counsel, Nwandu Ukoha, Mr Ogara and the company committed the offences on December 17, 2017.
The commission said Mr Ogara induced Usman Ademoye, director of Kelly Newton Nigeria Ltd., to confer a benefit on him by delivering 8,000 units of waste bins worth N5.2 million to him in the understanding that the waste bins would be paid for.
The commission said Mr Ogara knew the representation to be false.
The EFCC added that Mr Ogara induced Mr Ademoye, the complainant, to confer a benefit on him by delivering copies of Kogi State Vehicle Consolidated documents worth N19.1 million to him in the understanding that the documents would be paid for.
It said Mr Ogara knew the representation to be false.
The prosecution called two witnesses through whom the court tendered and admitted several documents as exhibits.
The complainant testified as the first prosecution witness.
Mr Ogara testified as the first defence witness, denying the allegations. Two other witnesses testified in his defence.
(NAN)
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