N73.7m Fraud: Court Imprisons Two Former Bauchi Accounts Officers

Justice Mu’azu Abubakar of the Bauchi Division of the Federal High Court has convicted and sentenced two former accounts officials of Bauchi State Government to prison for financial misappropriation.

The two convicts, Kawu Chindo, a former Chief Accountant of Bauchi State Muslims Pilgrims Welfare Board and Ali Baba of the Office of the Accountant-General of the State, were dragged before the court by Gombe Zonal Command of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

The Bauchi State Ministry of Finance and Economic Development had alleged that both Chindo and Baba printed and issued fake revenue receipts to intending pilgrims to Saudi Arabia for Hajj in 2019.

Following a petition by the state government, EFCC investigated and arraigned the two before the court, accusing them of conspiring to appropriate to themselves public funds to the tune of N73.7million by diverting the said amount to personal accounts, thereby committing the offence of fraud.

The prosecution further accused the convicts of diverting the money to their personal accounts with the intention of defrauding the state government and innocent people who paid the money rather than pay the sum into the accounts of the pilgrims welfare board.

Delivering judgment in the case last Wednesday, Justice Abubakar found the defendants guilty of the charged filed against them by EFCC.

He, therefore, sentenced Chindo to seven years imprisonment, while Baba was sentenced to three months imprisonment.