N3.1m Fraud: Court Remands Man In Prison For Impersonating Fashola

Justice Chukwujekwu Aneke of the Federal High Court in Lagos on Monday remanded one Malik Wakili for allegedly impersonating the Minister of Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, and defrauding him of N3,106, 216.

Justice Aneke ordered that Wakili be kept behind bars after he was arraigned before him by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission on Monday on a three-count charge of Fraud.

The EFCC had told the judge that the defendant, who committed the offence in March this year, conspired with one Abdullahi Umar, said to be at large, “to fraudulently impersonate Fashola, with intent to gain monetary advantage for yourselves.”

Read Also: Police Arrest Armed Robbers, Who Attack Hospital, Rob Patients, Staff

The anti-graft agency also claimed  that the defendant “converted the total sum of N3,106,216, being the value of the Air-miles Skywards Account Number EK248739282 of the Minister with the Emirate Airline and which sum you reasonably ought to have known formed part of the proceeds of your unlawful activity, to wit: fraud.”

The prosecutor, Uduak Kufre insisted that Wakili acted contrary to sections 15(2)(a) and 27(1)(b) of the Money Laundering (Prohibition) Act and was liable to be punished under sections 15(3) and 22(3)(a) of the same Act.

The defendant, however, pleaded not guilty to charge.

Justice Aneke adjourned till December 17 to rule on the bail application filed on his behalf by his lawyer, Eubena Anedu.

The prosecuting counsel for the EFCC, Uduak Kufre, did not oppose the bail application; he only urged the judge to impose conditions that would ensure that the defendant attend his trial.

The judge ordered that Wakili should be remanded in the prison custody, pending the ruling on his bail application.