Retired NPA staff bags 14 years jail term over N24.3m fraud

An Ikeja special offences court has sentenced Nasiru Ogara, a retired staff of the Nigeria Ports Authority (NPA) to 14 years imprisonment over fraud.

Delivering judgment in the case on Wednesday, Mojisola Dada, the presiding judge, held that the prosecution proved the case beyond a reasonable doubt.

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) had preferred a four-count charge against Ogara and his company, New Age Motor Waste Basket Ltd.

According to Nwandu Ukoha, EFCC counsel, Ogara in 2017 induced one Usman Ademoye, director of Kelly Newton Nigeria Ltd, to confer a benefit on him by delivering 8,000 units of waste bin worth N5.2 million to him in the understanding that the waste bins would be paid for.

The commission said that Ogara knew the representation to be false.

The anti-graft agency told the court that Ogara also induced Ademoye to confer a benefit on him by delivering copies of Kogi state vehicle consolidated documents worth N19.1 million to him in the understanding that the documents would be paid for.

The first defendant was also said to have issued dud cheques to the complainant.

Although the defendants were acquitted on count four, they were found guilty on counts one, two, and three.

While Ogara got 14 years in prison on counts one and two, he was handed a two-year sentence on count three.

The judge held that the sentences should run concurrently.

She also imposed a fine of N15 million on the retiree’s company and ordered that it should be wound up,  while its assets sold and the proceeds used to pay the complainant.

She ordered the convict to restitute N24.3 million to the complainant.