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Ahmed Balarabe bags 14-year jail term, Court of appeal upholds sentence

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Deputy director of the Federal Character Commission, Alh. Ahmed Balarabe, has been given 14-year jail term by Zamfara State High  Court for defrauding some job seekers of N8 million but the Court of Appeal, Sokoto division has upheld his sentence .

Balarabe was charged before Justice Bello Shinkafi of the Zamfara State High Court by the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission on two counts of obtaining by false pretense.

The court was told how Balarabe, collected over N8m from unsuspecting job seekers with the promise of giving them jobs while being the coordinator of the Federal Character Commission in Zamfara and Sokoto States between 2017 and 2018, thereby contravening section 1 (1)(a) of the Advance Fee Fraud Act 2006.

Balarabe was asked to payback N7m to the victims of the crime and also jailed for 14 years with an option of N500, 000 fine by Justice Shinkafi.

The convict approached the appellate court to quash the judgment of the trial court as he was not satisfied with the ruling, the.

On Tuesday, Azuka Ogugua, the ICPC spokesperson said, ”While his counsel, Mr. A. Y. Abubakar argued that the court should dismiss the judgment, ICPC counsel, Mashkur Salisu, argued that the conviction was in line with the provisions of the Advance Fee Fraud Act 2006 violated by Balarabe.

“Having listened to the argument from the two counsel, the court unanimously dismissed the appeal on the grounds of lack of merit and affirmed the decision of the trial court.”

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