A secondary school principal in Gombe State, Mr. Bello Muhammed Abubakar, has been arraigned by the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission, ICPC, over alleged fraudulent activities and other ancillary offences.
The ICPC, in a two-count charge preferred against the accused before Hon. Justice Halima S. Muhammed of Gombe State High Court 2, sitting in Gombe, informed the court that the accused person had defrauded unsuspecting admission seekers to the tune of the Three Million, Eight Hundred and Eighty-Four Thousand, Two Hundred Naira only, N3,884,200:00.
The charge reads inter alia: “That you, Bello Muhammed Abubakar, m, between the period of 2009 to 2014 or thereabout, at Gombe, within the jurisdiction of this honourable court, did obtain by false pretence the sum of N3,884,200:00 from unsuspecting admission seekers under the guise of offering them admission into Mukhtar Polytechnic Gombe and Goni Mukhtar College of Education, Gombe State…and you thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 1(1)(a) and punishable under Section 1(3) of the Advanced Fee Fraud and Other Related Offences Act, 2006.”
In Charge No GM/128C/2021, the ICPC averred that Mr. Abubakar had obtained, by false pretence, the above sum when he illegally operated the following institutions: “Mukhtar Polytechnic, Goni, Mukhtar College of Education, and Goni Mukhtar Linguistic Centre,” all in one block of three classrooms in Gombe State between 2009 and 2015.
ICPC counsel, Mashkur Salisu, informed the court how the school principal perpetrated the said offences before he was nabbed by operatives of the Commission during an intelligence-led operation.
The illegal institutions, operated by the accused, have since been shut down by the ICPC.
According to the commission, the defendant’s actions are contrary to Section 13 and punishable under Section 68 of the Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Act, 2000, and Section 1(i) of the Advanced Fee Fraud Act, 2006.
When the charges were read to the accused person, he pleaded not guilty, and his counsel, Mr. A.B. Ebrany, moved an application for bail in favour of his client, which was not opposed by the prosecution counsel.
The trial judge, therefore, granted the accused person bail in the sum of N2,000,000, and two sureties in the like sum, who must be residents within the jurisdiction of the court and must depose to affidavit of means, failure of which he would be remanded in Gombe Correctional Centre.
The trial judge Subsequently adjourned the case till 29th and 30th of March 2022 for hearing.
