By Miriam Humbe
Justice A. Isiaka of the Kaduna State High Court, sitting in Kaduna has convicted and sentenced one Nureedeen Siraj to jail for fraud.
Dele Oyewale, EFCC’s Head of Media and Publicity disclosed this in a statement signed on Monday.
He was prosecuted by the Kaduna Zonal Directorate of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC on a one-count charge, bordering on theft to the tune of N3,400,000.00 (Three Million, Four Hundred Thousand Naira).
The charge reads: “That you, Nureedeen Siraj ‘M’ sometime in December, 2022 in Kaduna State, within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court, dishonestly took out of possession of Zenith Bank Plc in the sum of N3,400,000.00 (Three Million, Four Hundred Thousand Naira) only into your Zenith Bank Plc accounts without the consent of Zenith Bank Plc, thereby committed theft, an offence contrary to Section 270(1) of the Penal Code Law, 2017 of Kaduna State and punishable under Section 271 of the same Law.”
He pleaded “guilty” when the charge was read to him, following which prosecution counsel, Y.J Matiyak urged the court to convict and sentence him accordingly, which met no opposition from defence counsel, Fatima Ustaz.
Justice Isiaka sentenced Siraj to two years imprisonment or to pay N300,000 (Three Hundred Thousand Naira) fine.
In addition, he restituted the sum of N3,400,000.00 (Three Million, Four Hundred Thousand Naira), being the proceeds of crime to his victim.
Siraj’s road to the Correctional Centre began with his arrest by the Commission following credible intelligence that exposed him to have used a rogue code to hack into the portal of Zenith Bank and credited his account with the bank with N3,400,000.00 (Three Million, Four Hundred Thousand Naira).
