On Monday, February 12, 2024, at Maiduguri, Justice Umaru Fadawu of the Borno State High Court found Aisha Wakil, also referred to as Mama Boko Haram, guilty and imposed a 10-year prison sentence on Tahiru Daura and Lawal Soyade.

Late on Monday night, Dele Oyewale, the head of media and publicity for the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), made this revelation in a statement.

Wakil and her accomplices were found guilty earlier by the EFCC’s Maiduguri Zonal Command for deceitfully receiving N15 million from Bukar Kachalla of Hamiza Global Resources Limited by pretending to supply three units of Chemistry Analyser Solar Energy Brand Model 1800 (UK version).

Section 1(1) (b) of the Advance Fee Fraud and Other Fraud Related Offences Act, 2006 was cited as being violated by the activity.

Wilson Uwujaren, a former spokesman for the EFCC, said in a statement that Wakil and the others had been sentenced to seven years in prison for conspiracy and acquiring money under false pretences by Borno State High Court Judge Aisha Kumaliya.

Oyewale said in his statement that “The defendants were jailed upon being arraigned by the Maiduguri Zonal Command of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), on Thursday, March 5, 2020, on a two-count charge bordering on conspiracy and obtaining by false pretence to the tune of N40m.”

Read also:

Access Holdings Names Bolaji Agbede as Acting CEO

Count two of the charge reads: “That you Aisha Alkali Wakil, Tahiru Alhaji Saidu Daura, and Prince Lawal Soyade whilst being the Chief Executive Officer, Programme Manager, and Country Director respectively of Complete Care and Aid Foundation, (a Non-Governmental Organisation) and Saidu Mukhtar (at large) sometime in Maiduguri, Borno State within the jurisdiction of this honourable court did with intent to defraud obtained the sum of N40m from one Bashir Abubakar, the Chief Executive Officer of Duty-Free Shop Ltd under the false pretence of executing a purported contract for the supply of five X-ray Machines 1900 with Solar Energy which you knew to be false and thereby committed an offence contrary to Section (1) 1 (b) of the Advance Fee Fraud and other Fraud Related Offences Act, 2006 and punishable under Section 1(3) of the same Act.”

Nevertheless, after the accusations were read to the defendants, they entered a “not guilty” plea. Meanwhile, A. I. Arogha, the prosecution’s attorney, called four witnesses and submitted seventeen evidence to the court.

Justice Fadawu “convicted and sentenced them to 10 years imprisonment for the offence of conspiracy,” according to the statement.

In addition, the court ordered the defendants to pay N40 million to Bashir Muhammad jointly and severally and sentenced them to 10 years in prison for the crime of gaining by false pretence.

“The prison term shall run concurrently on the expiration of all prison terms imposed on the convicts by any court,” the statement also reads.

The prisoners’ path to the penal facility started when a petitioner claimed they had conned him out of a fictitious N40 million contract for the provision of five X-ray machines 1900 with solar energy to the Complete Care and Aid Foundation, a non-governmental organisation.

They did not give the petitioner the machines or reimburse them for the contract amount.