Man sentenced to 2 years imprisonment for defrauding Commissioners of Police N154,000

Mohammed Isah

An Ikeja Magistrates’ Court, Lagos State, has sentenced one Mohammed Isah to two years’ imprisonment for defraudinsg the Anambra and Ondo states Commissioners of Police of N154,000.

While the Anambra CP was duped of N150,000, his counterpart in Ondo State was swindled of N4,000.

The court held that Isah was guilty of the offence and handed him the sentence without option of fine.

The convict was said to have operated in Anambra, Ondo and Lagos states between June and December 7, 2015, before he was arrested by the police in Lagos.

The Katsina-born convict had gone to the Lagos State Police Command’s X-Squad Department in Ikeja to complain that some policemen attached to the Rapid Response Squad collected N188, 200 from him.

A police officer, ACP Edward Ajogun, who had served in the Ondo Police Command before he was transferred to Lagos in September, reportedly met him making the complaint.

It was learnt that Ajogun had witnessed a similar scenario of the convict framing some policemen in Ondo with the sole aim of getting compensated.

Isah, who was immediately arrested, had reportedly implicated policemen in Ondo and Anambra states by taking the number plates of their patrol vehicles to the state police headquarters on the claims that they extorted money from him.

It was said that the Anambra Commissioner of Police had paid him N150,000 after he alleged that the cops from the command swindled him of N270,000.

Isah, who had used a pseudonym, Musa Mulamba, also accused a team of six policemen on patrol in Akure, Ondo State, of extorting N140, 000 from him. But the state CP gave him N4, 000 for reporting the matter to the command.

Our correspondent learnt that the allegation led to the dismissal of the six cops.

Isah had on December 12 pleaded guilty to the three counts bordering on fraud when he was arraigned before the court’s Chief Magistrate, Mrs. O.A. Olayinka.

The charges read in part, “That you, Mohammed Isah, between June 2015 and December 2015, did falsely accuse the patrol team police officers of Anambra, Ondo and Lagos states commands of extorting the sum of N270, 000, N140, 000 and N188, 200, from you respectively, thereby committing an offence punishable under sections 93, 95, 96 (a) (b) of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, Nigeria, 2011.

“That you did fraudulently obtain the sum of N150,000 and N4,000 from the Anambra and Ondo states CPs respectively, thereby committing an offence punishable under Section 312 (a) (b) (2) and (3) of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, Nigeria, 2011.

The magistrate consequently sentenced him to two years in prison for each of the three counts, adding that the jail terms would run concurrently without option of fine.