SUNRISE – The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, on Tuesday arraigned a woman, Jallaba Mala Bukar before a Maiduguri High Court over a fraud of N21.9 million on an investment hoax.
Bukar was arraigned on a three-count charge before Justice Abdullahi Sanya of the Borno State High Court sitting in Maiduguri, on a three-count charge bordering on criminal breach of trust.
The EFCC charged the suspect after investigations conducted into three separate petitions against her revealed that sometimes in 2017 on different occasions she fraudulently influenced one Mohammad Nur Alhaji, Hafsat Muhammad and Ba’ana Modu who entrusted their monies under her in the guise of investing in a company called Swithgolden.
They have alleged in the separate petitions that the said sum was given to Bukar for the investment, but it was instead, converted to personal use and all efforts to recover the money proved abortive.
One of the counts read to the accused, sa’id: “That you,Jallaba Mala Bukar, sometimes in July, 2018 at Maiduguri, Borno State within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court while being entrusted with the sum of N8,420,000,000 (Eight Million Four Hundred and Twenty Thousand Naira) only, being property of one Muhammad Nur Alhaji which was given to you for a business transaction, dishonestly converted same to your personal use and thereby committed an offence contrary to and punishable under sections 311 and 312 of the Penal Law of Borno State (Cap. 102) Vol. 3 of 1994 respectively.”
Bukar however pleaded “not guilty” to all the counts.
Prosecuting counsel, Haruna Abdulkadir, prayed the court for a trial date.
Justice Sanya, thereafter, adjourned the matter to April 2, 3 and 4, 2019 for “commencement of trial” and ordered that the defendant be remanded in the prison custody.
