Justice Nathan Musa of the Gombe State High Court in Gombe has convicted and sentenced a former cashier of Yola Electricity Distribution Company, YEDC, Ibrahim Aliyu, to seven years imprisonment for forgery and N10.94million fraud.
Aliyu was jailed on Tuesday, May 17, after pleading guilty to one-count amended charge bordering on criminal breach of trust and forgery upon his arraignment by the Gombe Zonal Command of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
Aliyu was arraigned on November 17, 2020 on 36-count charge of alleged involvement in criminal breach of trust, forgery and using as genuine a forged document. He pleaded not guilty to the charge when it was read to him. But the 36 charges were amended to one -count charge on May 17, 2022 while he pleaded guilty to the offence.
The one-count charge read: “That you, Ibrahim Aliyu, between December 2016 and June 2018 in Yola, Adamawa State within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court dishonestly converted to your personal use the gross sum of N10,949,500.00 (Ten Million Nine Hundred and Forty Nine Thousand, Five Hundred Naira), property of Yola Electricity Distribution Company (YEDC).
In view of his plea, the prosecuting EFCC lawyer , Mubarak Tijani, urged the court to convict Aliyu accordingly.
Justice Musa found Aliyu guilty and sentenced him to seven years imprisonment with an option of fine of N300,000.
Aliyu’s journey to the Correctional Centre started in 2016 when he was arrested for defrauding the Yola Electricity Distribution company the sum of N10.94million. While working as a cashier with the company, he forged payment reports and converted the company’s money to his personal use.
