Court Convicts NNPC Staff Over N1.8m Fraud

A staff of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Nuhu Aliyu, has been convicted by Justice Darius Khobo of the Kaduna State High Court, for fraud.

He worked under the Nigerian Pipeline and Storage Company Ltd (NPSC).

Aliyu, the Chairman, PENGASSAN PPMC Kaduna depot branch, defrauded the NNPC to the tune of N1,834,900 in October 2017.

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) prosecuted him on amended one-count charge of criminal breach of trust and abuse of office.

He pleaded guilty when the charge was read to him.

Prosecution counsel, Y. J. Matiyak tendered 11 documents that were admitted as exhibits and urged the court to convict and sentence him accordingly.

Justice Khobo ordered him to pay N100,000 to the federal government or risk a 10-year-jail term.

The judge pronounced that the EFCC should recover the proceeds of the crime from the convict and transfer it in favour of the PPMC.

Aliyu pulled off the fraud by summoning an emergency meeting of a few NUPENG executives.

He deliberately left out some others with the sole aim of having the liberty to process some payments to himself.

Though the meeting did not hold, he facilitated the payments to himself in two parts.

One to himself to the tune of N934,900, and the other to Muktar Aliyu, NUPENG Secretary in the state, to the tune of N900,000.00.

However, Muktar routed back the sum to Nuhu, thereby making the chairman the sole beneficiary of an illicit payment of N1,834,900.00.

Detectives also discovered that to facilitate the payments, the convict forged the signatures of other NUPENG officials with the help of one Ibrahim Yakubu Shekarau.