By Samuel Omotere
Two Yobe businessmen, Haruna Ahmadu and Kabiru IIiyasu have been sentenced by Justice Fadimatu Aminu to separate jail terms at the Federal High Court in Damaturu for operating Bureau de Change businesses without a requisite licence.
According to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission on Thursday, the suspects were first arraigned on Tuesday, March 12, 2024 by the Maiduguri Zonal Directorate.
The defendants were first arraigned on Tuesday, March 12, 2024, by the Maiduguri Zonal Directorate of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, on a lone separate charge.
The one-count charge against Ahmadu reads: “That you, Ahmadu Haruna, between the month of June 2023 and 2024 in Damaturu, Yobe State, within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court, did carry on other financial businesses, to wit, bureau de change business without a licence issued by the Central Bank of Nigeria contrary to Sections 57 and 59(5) of the Bank and other Financial Institutions Act, 2020.”
Haruna and IIiyasu pleaded that they were not guilty of the charges against them by the EFCC after they were read, but as the trial continued, only IIiyasu pleaded guilty to his charge.
EFCC stated that Mukhtar Ali Ahmad, the prosecution counsel prayed to the court to convict them accordingly, with IIiyasu admitting he was guilty as charged.
The Judge, Aminu later sentenced the duo in separate judgement, convicting and sentencing Iliyasu to four years imprisonment with a fine option of N500,000( Five Hundred Thousand Naira) and two years imprisonment for Ahmadu with an option of N100,000(One Hundred Thousand Naira).