The Economic and Financial Crimes
Commission on Tuesday, November 1
arraigned one Ahmed Tijjani Umar and his two
companies, Eximab Integrated Link Limited
and Minanta Enterprises Limited before Justice
Tukur Mu'azu of Kaduna State High Court on
three counts of obtaining under false pretense
and issuance of dud cheque.
The accused person allegedly induced the
complainant to part with the sum of N24,
000,000 under the guise that the said amount
was management fees in respect of contract
purportedly from the National Assembly for the
supply of pipes and sanitary wares to the
“National Assembly Quarters, Lugbe Abuja”.
The purported contract, according to the
accused person, was worth N2,
051,534,525.00 (Two Billion, Fifty One Million,
Five Hundred and Thirty Four Thousand, Five
Hundred and Twenty Five Naira Only).
Investigation into the alleged fraud revealed
that the accused person had used his
company Eximab Integrated Link to award the
purported contract to the complainant,
Fenabros Limited. It was further revealed that
in order to decieve the complainant, the
accused person through his other company,
Minanta Enterprises, issued two Access Bank
cheques in the sum of N7,500,000 (Seven
Million, Five Hundred Thousand Naira Only)
each, which were returned unpaid due to lack
funds in the account.
One of the charge read that
" You Ahmed Tijjani Umar, EXIMAB
INTEGRATED LINK LIMITED on or about
the 10th of August 2010, in Kaduna, within
the Judicial Division of the Kaduna State
High Court with intent to defraud obtained
the sum of N24,000,000 (Twenty Four
Million Naira Only) from Fenabros Limited
by falsely representing that the said
N24,000,000 was a 3% part payment of
Management fee in respect of a contract
for the supply of pipes and sanitary wares
which pretense you knew to be false and
you thereby committed an offense contrary
to Sections 1(1)(b) and punishable under
Sections 1(3) of the Advance Fee Fraud
and Other Related Offences Act, 2006"
Tijjani pleaded not guilty after listening and
understanding the contents of the charge.
Prosecution counsel, Nasiru Salele requested
the court for a trial date in view of the plea of
the accused person and also asked that the
accused person be remanded in prison custody
However, counsel representing the accused
person K. Olowookere made an oral
application praying the court to admit his
client to bail.
Salele replied that the accused person would
not be available for his trial if granted bail. He
reminded the court that this particular case
came up on two occasions in October and
December of 2015 and on both dates, the
accused person failed to appear in court which
compelled the court to issue a bench warrant
for his arrest.
Justice Mu'azu agreed with the argument of
the prosecution and refused the bail
application. The case has been adjourned to
November 10 and 11 for the commencement
of trial.
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