The Kaduna division of the court of Appeal on Monday, December 18th, upheld the judgment of the Kano State High Court which convicted and sentenced an Ex-Bank Manager, Samuel Owoleye to 19 years imprisonment in 2012.
Owoleye, a Manager at the Union Bank Branch of Bank Road Kano who was prosecuted by the EFCC, for offences bordering on Obtaining by False Pretence contrary to sections 1(1) of the Advance Fee Fraud and Other Fraud Related Offences Act, 2006 and section 371 of the Penal code law, had pleaded not guilty and the prosecution, through its counsel A.T Habib, presented ten witnesses and tendered numerous exhibits in order to prove the case against him during his trial.
On the 20th day of June 2012, the Kano State High Court presided over by Honourable Justice Dije Abdu Aboki found the accused person guilty on the three count charge that were preferred against him by the commission and convicted him accordingly.
The appellant was subsequently sentenced to 10 years imprisonment on count one, 7 years imprisonment on count 2 without option of fine. However, on count three, he was sentenced to 2 years imprisonment with option of N300,000 fine. While the sentence in count one and two were to run concurrently, the appellant was to serve consecutive sentence in count three.
Owoyele’s road to prison started when the commission received a petition from one Ashiru Munzali Gambo that the convict obtained the sum N27,000,000 (Twenty Seven Million Naira) under a false pretence that he had $185,000 (one hundred and eighty-five thousand United States Dollars) to sell to him.
Being dissatisfied with the judgment of the trial court, the convict approached the Kaduna division of the Court of Appeal in a bid to set aside the judgment of the lower court on three grounds.
In a judgment delivered by Honourable Justice Bdlya Ibrahim all the issues raised by the appellant were resolved against the appellant and in favour of the respondents. The appeal was dismissed for lack of merit.
The convict was immediately rearrested by officers of the Commission and conveyed to Kano Zonal Office of the Commission.
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