28 years imprisonment has been handed to a fraudulent individual, Muhammad Halim Ogbobio, who posed as the coordinator of Bayelsa State Muslim Pilgrims Welfare Board and was found guilty of N12m fraud by Justice J.E. Iyang of the Federal High Court sitting in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State.
Ogbobio, who fraudulently collected a total of Twelve Million One Hundred and Thirty Naira (N12,130,000.00) in bogus hajj fees, was first arraigned on a 5-count charge of forgery and obtaining money by false pretense by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, Port Harcourt Zonal office on March 19, 2015. He had posed as the coordinator of Muslim Pilgrims Welfare Board from 2009-2012.
His victims, who were introduced to him by one Adodo Yusuf Oristsegbubemi, were unable to attend the 2012 Hajj exercise despite paying the aforementioned amount. Efforts to retrieve their money proved futile.
One of the charges against him reads;
“That you Muhammad Halim Ogbobio and others now at large on the 3rd day of September 2012 at Yenagoa, Bayelsa State, within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court, with intent to defraud did obtain the sum of Six Million Seven Hundred Thousand Naira(N6,700,000.00) from one Ibrahim Abdullahi Paisa which said sum was paid into your Sky Bank account No. 1010839270 under the pretence that you are one of the Coordinators of 2012 Hajji Exercise, a pretence you knew to be false and thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 1 (1) (a) of the Advance Fee Fraud and Other Fraud Related Offences Act 2006 and punishable under 1 (3)of the same Act”.
Despite pleading not guilty to the charges before the commencement of trial, Ogbobio was found guilty and sentenced to seven years imprisonment on each of counts 2, 3, 4 and 5. He was, however, acquitted on count one.
The sentences are to run concurrently from March 19, 2015, the date he was arraigned.