Daily Trust

CRIME Civil servant gets 1-year jail term for impersonat­ing colleague

- From Haruna Gimba Yaya, Gombe

AGombe State High Court has sentenced a civil servant Mohammed to one year imprisonme­nt for cheating and impersonat­ing his colleague Ibrahim Abdullahi at the Gombe State Ministry of Housing and Transport.

Nasiru was arraigned by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on one-count charge bordering on cheating and impersonat­ion. He was reported to the Gombe zonal office of the EFCC Abdullahi.

The court was told that in August 2011 Nasiru illegally opened the secret file of Abdullahi at the ministry’s Registry Office and obtained copies of his pay slips, which he used to apply for a loan of N122, 000 from the Gombe State Civil Service Union.

The court further heard that when the loan was released, Nasiru converted same to his personal use without Abdullahi’s knowledge.

Abdullahi said all effort to persuade Nasiru pay him the money or inform the ministry to stop deducting the loan from his salary proved abortive.

Nasiru pleaded guilty to the onecount charge against him, following which the prosecutio­n counsel, Barrister Zarami Muhammad, appealed to the court to convict him and sentence him accordingl­y.

The presiding judge, Justice Abubakar Jauro, convicted Nasiru and sentenced him to one year imprisonme­nt, or an option to pay N30, 000 as fine.

The convict was also asked to pay the complainan­t his money.

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