Court Convicts NNPC Staff, Nuhu Aliyu for N1.8m Fraud in Kaduna

By Wale Abideen// Justice Darius Khobo of the Kaduna State High Court, Kaduna on Thursday, October 15, 2020, convicted and sentenced one Nuhu Aliyu for fraud.

Aliyu, a staff of Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, (NNPC)/Nigerian Pipeline and Storage Company Ltd (NPSC) and Chairman, PENGASSAN PPMC Kaduna Depot Branch, defrauded the NNPC to the tune of N1,834,900.00 (One Million, Eight Hundred and Thirty-four Thousand, Nine Hundred Naira) in October 2017.

He was prosecuted by the Kaduna Zonal Office of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, on amended one-count charge of criminal breach of trust and abuse of office to which he pleaded guilty.

Following his guilty plea, prosecution counsel Y.J.Matiyak tendered 11 documents that were admitted as exhibits and urged the court to convict and sentence him accordingly.

He was convicted and sentenced by the judge to pay the sum of N100,000 (One Hundred Thousand Naira) to the federal government or risk a 10 years jail term.

Justice Khobo further pronounced that the EFCC should recover the proceeds of the crime from the convict and transfer it in favour of the PPMC.

The convict pulled off the fraud by summoning an emergency meeting of a few NUPENG executives, and deliberately left out some others with the sole aim of having the liberty to process some payments to himself. Though the meeting did not hold, he went ahead to facilitate the payments to himself by splitting the payments into two. One to himself, to the tune of N934,900 (Nine Hundred and Thirty-four Thousand, Nine Hundred Naira) and the other to Muktar Aliyu, NUPENG’s secretary in the state, to the tune of N900,000.00 (Nine Hundred Thousand Naira).

Muktar Aliyu, however, routed back the sum to Nuhu Aliyu, thereby making the chairman the sole beneficiary of an illicit payment of N1,834,900.00 (One Million Eight Hundred and Thirty-four Thousand, Nine Hundred Naira).

It was further discovered that to facilitate the payments, the convict forged the signatures of some other NUPENG officials with the help of one Ibrahim Yakubu Shekarau.