Land Speculator Bags 70-Years Jail Term For Forgery In Abuja

Land Speculator Bags 70-Years Jail Term For Forgery In Abuja

Justice C.O Agbaza of the Federal high court, sitting in Jabi Abuja,
on Wednesday, April 10, 2019, sentenced and convicted one Kehinde Bello,
to 70 years imprisonment for obtaining by false pretence and
forgery. EFCC, had arraigned the convict for trial on 10-count charge
bordering on Advance Fee Fraud, forgery and conspiracy.

Bello’s problem started in 2008, through a petition by Enatto-Nana
Aisha to the EFCC, complaining of the convict, who approached her to pay
for of a landed property in Abuja, claiming to be a staff of the
Federal Capital Development Authority, FCDA. Being convinced of the
transaction, she parted with N28 million, being initial deposit to the
convict.
But the convict disappeared without letter of allocation, as he had promised.

Working on the petition, the operatives of the EFCC arrested the
convict and charged him to court in 2014, on a 10 count charge of
conspiracy, obtaining by false pretence and forgery.
Investigation revealed that Bello’s other accomplices: Gabriel Adole
Simon (now at large) and James Ogar (still at large) obtained N28,
000.000.00 (Twenty Eight Million Naira) only from their victim Aisha,
under the false pretence that the money was for re-certification and
re-issuance of two plots of land in the Maitama area of Abuja, the FCT.

Investigation by the EFCC operatives further indicated that the
convict used several other forged documents among them are the Federal
Capital Territory Administration, Offer Of Terms Grant/ Conveyance Of
Approval With Ref No: MFCT/LA/KN.3071, dated March 20, 2002 in the name
of one Abubakar M. Laden and Abuja Geographic Information Systems,
Recertification And Re-Issuance of C of O with file NO: KT 11284 dated
December 23, 2008 in the name of one Haruna Yunusa, to defraud the
complainant.

Count one of the charge reads: “That you Kehinde Bello, Gabriel Adole
Simon (now at large) and James Ogar (still at large) sometimes in 2008
within the jurisdiction of High Court of the Federal Capital Territory
did conspire among yourselves to commit an unlawful act to wit:
obtaining money by false pretense and thereby committed an offence
contrary to section 8(a) and punishable under section 1(3) of the
Advance Fee Fraud and other Fraud Related Offences Act, 2006”.

While the second count reads: “That you Kehinde Bello, Gabriel Adole
Simon sometime in 2008 with the Jurisdiction of the High court of the
Federal Capital territory with intent to defraud obtained the aggregate
sum of N28,000,000.00 (Twenty Eight Million Naira) only from one Enatto-
Nana Aisha by false pretense purportedly for the recertification and
reissuance of two plots of land described as file number: KT11284 in the
name of Haruna Yunusa with plot number 4085 Cadestral Zone AO5 of
Maitama dated 09/04/2002 and file number KN13063 in the name of Abubakar
Ladan, with plot number cadastral Zone AO6 of Maitama date 20/03/2002
respectively for her which pretence you knew to be false and there by
committed an offence contrary to section 1(1)(a) of advance Fee Fraud
and other Fraud Related Offences Act 2006 and punishable under section
1(3) of the same ACT”.

At the resumed hearing on Wednesday, 10 April, the prosecution
counsel, Chioma Okongwu, after proving her case beyond reasonable doubt
closed her case against the accused. The accused pleaded ‘guilty’ on all
the 10 count charge. Justice Agbaza, thereafter, found Bello guilty on
the 10-count charge and convicted him to seven years imprisonment on
each of the count. The sentence, according to the judge, is to run
concurrently.