Man Gets N20, 000 Option Of Fine For N11.2m Rice Scam In Gombe

One Muhammad Abdullahi Yusuf, convicted for N11.2 million rice deal, has been sentenced to six months imprisonment in Gombe State.

Yusuf was convicted on Thursday by Justice A. M. Sambo of Bauchi State High Court following his prosecution by the Gombe zonal office of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC.

He was prosecuted on a two-count charge of criminal breach of trust.

Justice Samb, however, gave him a N20, 000 option of fine.

One of the charges against the convict reads, “That you Muhammad Abdullahi Yusuf on or about the 9th May, 2019 in Bauchi, Bauchi State, within the jurisdiction of this honourable court, fraudulently induced one Mrs Laraba Patrick to deliver to you, 400 bags of Tam Tali parboiled rice worth N5, 600,000.00 (Five Million, Six Hundred Thousand Naira) by falsely representing that the goods were to be distributed to the Non Academic Staff Union, Bauchi State Polytechnic, Bauchi State, which pretence you knew to be false, and thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 320  (b) of the Penal Code Law and punishable under Section 322 of the same Law.” 

He pleaded guilty to the charges upon which the prosecution counsel, G. I Ndeh, urged the court to convict and sentence him accordingly. 

Wilson Uwujaren, EFCC spokesman, in a statement on Thursday, said, “Justice Sambo pronounced him guilty and sentenced him to six months imprisonment with N20, 000.00 (Twenty Thousand Naira) option of fine. In addition, the convict will restitute his victim N9, 700, 000 (Nine Million, Seven Hundred Thousand Naira) within one year, commencing from today.”

Uwujaren also gave an insight into how the convict started his journey to prison.

He said: “Muhammad was prosecuted following a petition by one Mrs Laraba Patrick, a rice distributor with Tim Tali Rice Mills Limited, Langtang, Plateau State, in which she complained that she supplied two trucks of 400 bags of rice each, worth N11, 200,000.00 (Eleven Million, Two Hundred Naira) to the defendant, with an agreement that he would pay within five days, but failed to pay. 

“Investigation by the commission revealed that though the defendant sold out the supply, he could not account for the proceeds as he was only able to deliver N1, 500,000.00 (One Million, Five Hundred Thousand Naira) to the petitioner, leaving an outstanding of N9, 700, 000.00 (Nine Million, Seven Hundred Thousand Naira).”