Mansur Mahmoud, the accountant of Ringim Emirate Council of Jigawa State was on Wednesday, October 9, 2019 arraigned before Justice Ado Yusuf Birnin Kudu of Jigawa State High Court sitting in Hadejia on one count charge bordering on cheating.

He allegedly obtained a sum of N12,430,000 from the petitioner ostensibly as loan for the payment of the Emirate staff salary and running costs but refused to refund the money after the Emirate had received its allocation.

The charge reads: “That you Mansur Mahmoud sometime in 2017 or there about, at Unity Bank Dutse Branch, Jigawa State within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court did dishonestly induce one Baba Sule Abubakar Sadiq to deliver to you the sum of Twelve Million Four Hundred and Thirty Thousand Naira Only (N12,430,000) for the purpose of payment of salary of Ringim Emirate Council Staff which you knew same to be false and thereby committed cheating, an offence contrary to section 320 and punishable under section 322 of the Penal Code Law CAP P3 Laws of Jigawa State 2012 (as amended)''.

The accused person pleaded not guilty to the charge.

In view of his plea, prosecution counsel, Zarami Muhammad asked the court for a date for the commencement of trial and remand the defendant in prison custody.

Justice Birnin Kudu however granted the defendant bail in the sum of Ten Million Naira (N10,000,000.00) with two sureties in like sum Both the defendant and his sureties are to deposit their international passports with the court.

The case was adjourned to October 23, 2019 for trial.

In a related development, the Port Harcourt Zonal office of the Commission on Tuesday, October 8, 2019 arraigned one Diaso Israel before Justice I.M Sani of the Federal High Court sitting in Port Harcourt, Rivers State on a five-count charge bordering on impersonation, possession of scam documents and obtaining money by false pretence contrary to Section 1(1) (a) and punishable under Section 1(3) of the Advance Fee Fraud and Other Related Offences Act, 2006.

One of the counts reads: "That you Diaso Israel Nyerhovwo(a.k.a Alvin Marios) on the 13thof December, 2018 at Port Harcourt within the jurisdiction of this honourable court had in your possession a document titled “Shell Petroleum Development Company: Endorsement of the award of Contract Number SPDC/ST/97538/XA9A/2011 in favour of Steve Wart which you knew contained false pretence and thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 1(1) (a) and punishable under Section 1(3) of the Advance Fee Fraud and Other Related Offences Act, 2006.”

The defendant pleaded not guilty to the charges preferred against him by the Commission.

In view of his plea, prosecuting counsel, N. A. Dodo urged the court to fix a date for commencement of trial. However, counsel to the defendant, O. S. Kpuma informed the court of the defendant’s pending bail application which was opposed by the prosecuting counsel on the grounds that he needed time to study the application.

Justice Sani ordered that the defendant be remanded in EFCC custody while the matter was adjourned to October 17, 2019 for hearing of bail application.

Israel’s troubles began when operatives of the EFCC arrested him sometimes in December 2018 during a raid of Soliders Hotel, Warri, Delta State. Investigations showed that the defendant was involved in several phony marriage proposals to foreigners. He allegedly opened several email addresses and forged several documents to achieve this end. Some of the email addresses include: albertbrook84@gmail.com,alvinmarios30@gmail.com, diasoisrael@gmail.com, stevenwart40@gmail.com, reubenvakin@gmail.com

Through his fraudulent schemes, he allegedly defrauded an Indian, Promilla Lama, to the tune of $5,000 (Five Thousand US Dollars) in November, 2018 in a phony online marriage proposal.

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