Justice Aisha Kumaliya of the Borno State High Court, Maiduguri on Thursday, convicted and sentenced Aisha Wakil popularly known as Mama Boko Haram and two others to five years imprisonment each.
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission disclosed this on Monday, noting that Wakil, alongside the Programme Manager of her Complete Care and Aid Foundation, Tahiru Saidu Daura, and the Country Director, Lawal Shoyode, was convicted after being found guilty of fraudulently obtaining a Toyota Camry 2012 model worth N6m from a petitioner under false pretences and giving false information.
The trio had been re-arraigned on four counts of conspiracy, cheating, and providing false information in September 2020, to which they pleaded not guilty.
Count two of the charge reads: “That you, Aisha Alkali Wakil, Tahiru Saidu Daura and Prince Lawal Shoyade whilst being Chief Executive Officer, Programme Manager and Country Director respectively of Complete Care and Aid Foundation (Non-Governmental Organisation) sometime between October and November 2018 at Maiduguri, Borno State within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court, dishonestly induced one Alhaji Bukar Kachalla of Abks Ventures Limited to deliver to you a Toyota Camry 2012 Model worth N6,000,000.00 (Six Million Naira) only under the guise of executing a contract for the purchase of the said car and thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 320 (a) and punishable under Section 322 of the Penal Code Cap 102 Laws of Borno State.”
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The defendants pleaded “not guilty” to the charges prepared against them by the EFCC.
During the trial, counsel for the prosecution, Mukhtar Ahmed and Shamsudeeb Saka presented three witnesses and tendered several documents as exhibits before the court in proof of EFCC’s case against the defendants.
Following extensive court proceedings, Justice Aisha Kumaliya handed each defendant a five-year prison sentence without an option of fine each on Thursday.
The court also ordered the defendants to pay a restitution of N3.5m to the petitioner. Failure to comply with the restitution order would result in an additional five years imprisonment for each defendant, the judge said.
The convicts bagged their imprisonment when they were arrested and prosecuted for taking from a petitioner a Toyota Camry 2012 model worth N6 million under the guise of purchasing the said car. They neither purchased the car nor returned it to the petitioner, the EFCC said.
