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Maiduguri Flour Mills ex GM bags 28yrs imprisonment for fraud

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AHMED MARI,  Maiduguri

 

The Court of Appeal sitting in Gombe on Friday jailed the former general manager of Maiduguri Flour Millis Ltd, Ma’aji Shettima Arfo to 28 years imprisonment for misappropriating N86.1million belonging to the Borno State Government and the Flour Mills of Nigeria while he was the general manager of the company.

 

The court  in a unanimous judgement found Arfo guilty of 4 out of the 6-count charges leveled  against him and upheld the judgement of the lower court.

 

Arfo was arraigned  on a six-count charges by the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) for offences bordering on abuse of office among others.

 

It would be recalled that, Justice Haruna Mshellia of the  Borno State High Court 3 , sitting in Maiduguri, had earlier  sentenced the former GM,  Ma’aji Arfo, to 28 years imprisonment for engaging in N86.1million contract fraud, but he  appealed  the judgement.

 

According to the charges,  Arfo, while acting as the general manager of the Flour Mills between 2014 and 2020, engaged in multiple fraud in violation of Sections 12 and 19 of the Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Act, 2000, punishable under relevant sections of the same Act.

They found  the former GM of awarding  rmultiple contracts to Falkwat Multilinks Limited, a private company where he was a director, to supply diesel and maize to Maiduguri Flour Mills.

 

Counsel to ICPC, Anas Mohammed Kolo told the court that the convict in October 2015, awarded a N4.9 million contract to Falkwat Multilinks Limited to supply 40,000 litres of diesel to the company while as public servant, he awarded several contracts between 2016 and 2017 to his private company to supply maize to Maiduguri Flour Mills Limited.

 

The ICPC Counsel also argued that  he authorized the payments of N42.1m to his company in July 2016 for the supply of 386.45 metric tonnes of maize and another N23m to the same company in March, 2016 to supply 306.94 metric tonnes of maize to the flour mills.

 

The ICPC in statement  issued by its spokesperson, Azuka Ogugua, on Thursday and made available to journalists in Maiduguri’ said he was convicted for yet another offence when he approved the payment of N16m to Falkwat Multilinks to supply 217.45 metric tonnes of maize.

 

The statement read, “Justice Mshellia at the end of the trial found the general manager guilty of four counts out of six preferred against him and sentenced him to seven years imprisonment on each count totaling 28 year but judge ruled the prison terms will run concurrently.

 

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