A Kaduna State High Court has convicted and sentenced a pension consultant, Mohammed Sodangi, to four months in prison for alleged N65.5m fraud.
Justice Darius Khobo, in his ruling also directed the convict to refund N55m through a bank draft to the Kaduna State Pension Bureau through the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission.
Sodangi’s road to jail began when the EFCC received a petition by a group, the Movement for Better Future, which alleged massive fraud in the Kaduna State Pension Bureau.
It was alleged that the then management of the bureau conspired with the consultant to steal pension funds through enrolment of ‘ghost’ pensioners.
The defendant was arraigned on May 15, 2015, on 13 counts bordering on impersonation and theft to the tune of N65.5m.
He had pleaded not guilty to the charges.
In the course of the trial, the acting EFCC spokesman, Tony Orilade, said in a statement on Tuesday, the commission presented five witnesses, while the defence presented three witnesses.
Before the sentence was pronounced, the defence counsel, A. S. Moyosore, urged the court to temper justice with mercy, noting that his client was a first-time offender and had many dependants.
The trial judge, however, sentenced Sodangi to three months in prison with an option of N100,000 fine on count one, which was the offence of impersonation.
The convict was also sentenced to four months each on count two to 13 to run concurrently, and asked to pay the sum of N100,000 as restitution on each count, totalling N1.2m.- Punch