The Ilorin Zonal directorate of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has secured the conviction and sentence of a former legislative aide and banker, Mr. Goni Yilkan, for obtaining the sum of N120. 5 million by false pretence.
Yilka was convicted and sentenced by Justice F. E Messiri of the Federal Capital Territory High Court sitting in Jabi, Abuja.
Yilkan, an indigene of Nguru community in Yobe State, was found guilty on a two-count charge of obtaining money by false pretence made against him and he was consequently sentenced to eight years imprisonment without option of fine.
The offences the EFCC had told the court is contrary to Section 1(1)(a) of the Advance Fee Fraud and Other Related Offences Act, 2006, and punishable under Section 1(3) of the same Act.
The convicted legislation aide was arraigned alongside one Mohammed Adamu in October 2023, sequel to a petitioner’s claims of being defrauded by the convict.
The petitioner had accused Yilkan of deceiving her between 2020 and 2021, into believing that he had the capacity to secure employment slots in government agencies such as the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), and Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC).
On this strength, the petitioner collected varying sums of money from over 60 job seekers, amounting to N120, 580, 550.00 million, which she claimed to have remitted to the convict.
But the purported employment offers never materialized, prompting Bello to petition the EFCC.
One of the charges read: “that you, Mohammed Goni Yilkan, Mohammed Adamu and others at large between 3rd January 2020 and December 2021 in Abuja within the jurisdiction of the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory with intent to defraud obtained the sum of N120, 580, 550 (One Hundred and Twenty Million, Five Hundred and Eighty Thousand, Five Hundred and Fifty Naira) from Mrs. Hindatu Bello under the false pretence that you had the capacity to secure jobs for her candidates in various Ministries, Departments and Agencies of the Federal Government of Nigeria which pretence you knew to be false and thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 1(1)(a) of the Advance Fee Fraud and Other Related Offences Act, 2006 and punishable under Section 1(3) of the same Act.”
During the trial of the charge, the prosecutor, Cosmas Ugwu, called six witnesses and tendered documentary evidence. While the defence lawyers , led by J.A. Oguche, presented two witnesses, including Yilkan himself.
In his judgment, Justice Messiri held that the prosecution had proved its case beyond reasonable doubt, convicted Yilkan, but discharged and acquitted his co-defendant, Adamu.
The judge further sentenced Yilkan to eight years’ imprisonment without an option of fine.
Yilkan’s journey to the Correctional Centre began when he collected the sum of N120.5million from desperate job seekers in the guise of offering them slots of employment. He neither offered them the jobs nor returned their money to them.
