In a significant legal development, the Maiduguri Zonal Command of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) achieved a decisive victory on Thursday, September 28, 2023, with the conviction and sentencing of Goni Muhammad and Seidu Seriki Hamani to seven years imprisonment. These individuals were found guilty of facilitating the sale of counterfeit gold, which they purportedly claimed belonged to former First Lady, Mrs. Patience Jonathan.
This verdict comes after the accused, Goni Muhammad and Seidu Seriki Hamani, were arraigned on May 16, 2022, before Justice Aisha Kumaliya of the Borno State High Court in Maiduguri. The charges against them encompassed two counts, including conspiracy and obtaining money under false pretenses, amounting to a substantial sum of N26,492,000.
One of the counts presented to the court read: “That you, Goni Mohammad and Seidu Seriki Hamman, sometimes in January 2020 in Maiduguri, Borno State, within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court, with the intent to defraud, did obtain 2 grams of gold at the rate of N26,492,000.00 (Twenty Six Million Four Hundred and Ninety-Two Thousand Naira), allegedly belonging to the wife of the former President, Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, under false pretense, which you knew to be false and thereby committed an offense contrary to Section 1(1) of the Advance Fee Fraud and other Fraud-Related Offences Act 2006 and punishable under Section 1(3) of the same Act.”
During the trial, the defendants pleaded ‘not guilty’ to the charges. The EFCC Counsel, Mukhtar Ali Ahmed, presented three witnesses and submitted several documents as exhibits before the court. The defense counsel, H. Waziri, appealed to the court to consider the defendants’ inability to secure bail after their initial arraignment.
In delivering her judgment, Justice Kumaliya found the defendants guilty and subsequently sentenced them to seven years of imprisonment for both the offense of conspiracy and the offense of obtaining money under false pretenses. The imposed sentences are to be served concurrently, starting from the day of their initial arraignment.
Furthermore, Judge Kumaliya ordered Goni Muhammad to repay the outstanding N16,492,000.00 to the victim or face an additional seven years of imprisonment.
This legal resolution comes following the arrest of the two convicts by operatives of the Maiduguri Zonal Command of the EFCC, who uncovered their involvement in a scheme to defraud individuals of N26,492,000 by purporting to sell two grams of gold, which they falsely claimed belonged to former First Lady, Mrs. Patience Goodluck Ebele Jonathan. The legal proceedings culminated in their conviction and subsequent sentencing.
