Justice Mahmood Abdulgafar of Kwara State High Court sitting in Ilorin has sentenced a self-styled custom officer, Yakubu Azeez Afolayan, to twenty years imprisonment having found him guilty of offences bordering on impersonation and job scam.
The convict was allegedly parading as custom officer, where he fraudulently swindled a number of unsuspecting job seekers under the guise of helping them secure employment into the Nigerian Custom service, NCS, before the long arm of law caught up with him.
The 34 year-old Yakubu from Share in Ifelodun Local Government Area of Kwara State was upon arrest arraigned on March 14, 2019 on a four-count by the Ilorin Zonal Office of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC.
He pleaded not guilty to the Counts thereby setting stage for full trial.
In the course of the trial, which lasted for over two years, the prosecution called four witnesses including one of his victims, an officer from the Nigerian Custom Service and the Investigating Officer who is an operative of EFCC.
In a well-considered judgment on Thursday, July 22, 2021, Justice Abdulgafar opined that from the totality of the evidence placed before the Court, the prosecution had proved its case beyond reasonable doubt and linked the accused person to the crime.
While evaluating other documents Justice Abdulgafar said, that statements of account of the defendant is additional evidence as it showed how monies were deposited into his account domiciled with the UBA by several job seekers.
In his allocutos, Yakubu’s counsel, S. O Ishola, urged the Court to temper justice with mercy saying that the convict is a first time offender.
Responding, counsel to the EFCC, Andrew Akoja, drew the attention of the Court to Section 1(a) and 1(3) of the Advance Fee Fraud and other fraud related Offences Act, 2006, which prescribed maximum of 7 years imprisonment for the offence for which the defendant was charged on Count 1 and 2.
Akoja further told the Court to consider Section 386 of the Penal Code Law, which prescribed maximum of 3 years imprisonment for the offences on counts 3 and 4.
Consequently, Justice Abdulgafar said there was nothing the Court could do than to follow the provisions of the law in sentencing Yakubu Afolayan to 7 years imprisonment on count 1; 7 years imprisonment on count 2; 3 years imprisonment on count 3 and 3 years imprisonment on count 4, to run concurrently.
