The Maiduguri Zonal Command of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission has arraigned Kyari Mohammed before Justice Aisha Kumaliya of Borno State High Court on a two-count charge bordering on criminal conspiracy and obtaining by false pretence to the tune of N99.75.
He was arraigned on Thursday by the EFCC alongside his company, Kyari and Sons Company Nigeria Limited.
Mohammed allegedly defrauded his victim, Alhaji Abubakar Moforo, by collecting food items valued at N99,750,000.00 under the guise of supplying the items to a Non- Governmental Organisation with a promise to pay the money within 45 days.
Count one reads: “That you Kyari Mohammed being a Managing Director of Kyari and Sons Company Nigeria Limited and alter ego of Kyari and Sons Company Nigeria Limited, a company registered in Nigeria, sometimes March, 2018 at Maiduguri, Borno State within the jurisdiction of this Honorable Court, did conspire among yourselves to obtained the gross sum of N99,750,000.00 (Ninety Nine Million, Seven Hundred and Fifty Thousand Naira) only, which you knew to be false and thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 8(a) of the Advance Fee Fraud and other Fraud Related Offences and Punishable under the same Act.”
The defendant pleaded “not guilty” to the charge preferred against him by the EFCC.
The EFCC counsel, Mukhtar Ali Ahmed, prayed the court for a trial date and urged the court to remand the defendant in prison custody.
Justice Kumaliya thereafter adjourned the matter till October 26, 2022 for hearing and remanded the defendant at Maiduguri Correctional Centre.
Mohammed was first arraigned on June 21, 2021 before Justice Umaru Fadawu of the Borno State High Court, Maiduguri on the same charge.
He pleaded “not guilty” to the charges, thereby leading to a full trial.
Ahmed, in the course of the trial, presented several witnesses through whom documents were tendered and admitted as exhibits by the court.
After the EFCC had closed its case, Mohammed, through his counsel, B.G. Mohammed, opted for a “no case submission”, which was dismissed by Justice Fadawu.
Subsequently, Justice Fadawu returned the file to the Chief Judge of Borno State for re-assignment, owing to an existing relationship between the judge and Mohammed’s brother, hence re-assigning the case to Justice Kumaliya.