Hajj Visa Fraudster
Hajj Visa Fraudster Convicted in Gombe
The Gombe Zonal office of the Economic and Financial Crimes
Commission, EFCC, on Monday, July 29, 2019, secured the conviction
of a visa fraudster, Malam Lauwali Usman, before Justice Abubakar
Jauro, of the Gombe State High Court, on a one count charge
bordering on fraud.
Usman was convicted after pleading guilty to the one count
charge.
His journey to jail started before the 2019 general elections
when he invited some people asking them to submit their
international passports for the lesser Hajj to Saudi Arabia.
The purpose for the lesser Hajj, according to him, was to take
them to Saudi Arabia to offer prayers in favour of a political
party and its candidates on contractual basis.
Some of his victims, however, submitted their international
passports to him while seven of them that have no international
passports pay the sum of N23, 000, (Twenty Three Thousand Naira)
each to procure one.
The victims explained that after collecting the money, the
convict called them few days after and told them that the person
conveying their passports to Kano State for visa processing was
involved in ghastly motor accident and that all the passports were
burnt, adding that they were going to pay another N23, 000 (Twenty
Three Thousand Naira), each for the replacement.
Sensing foul play, the petitioners contacted the EFCC and the
convict was arrested on January 2019, at Tashan Bauchi area, within
the Gombe Metropolitan City. He was arrested at the point of
collecting money from one of the victims.
A search warrant executed in the suspect’s house showed all the
international passports of the victims and other incriminating
items in his possession, which were recovered from him by the EFCC
operatives.
The count reads: “That you, Mallam Lauwali Usman, sometimes in
January 2019, or thereabout in Gombe, Gombe State, within the
jurisdiction of this Honourable Court, did with intent to defraud
Sani Ahmed Elwan, Zaidu Muhammed Awwal, Muhammed Shuaibu and Mallam
Umar Muhammed to deliver to you monies totalling N92,000 to procure
for them international passports for the purpose of performing
lesser pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia, which you never did and thereby
committed an offence contrary to Section 320 and Punishable under
Section 322 of the Penal Code Law”.
When the charge was read to him, Lauwali pleaded ‘guilty’.
In view of the guilty plea, prosecution counsel, S.M Aliyu,
argued that the convicted should be convicted and sentenced as
charged.
Justice Jauro sentenced and convicted Lauwali to two years
imprisonment for defrauding his victims.
The Judge also gave an option of fine to the tune of N50, 000,
(Fifty Thousand Naira), and ruled that the convict should restitute
the total sum to the victim.
Tony Orilade
Ag. Head, Media & Publicity
July 29, 2019