The Abuja Zonal Office of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, on Tuesday, February 25, 2020, arraigned an auto dealer, Anwalu Ila, before Justice S. Belgore of the High Court of the FCT, Apo, on a one-count charge, bordering on breach of trust, dishonesty and misappropriation to the tune of N65,000,000.
A statement by the Acting Spokesperson of the commission, Tony Orilade on Wednesday, said Ila landed in EFCC’s net when the anti-graft agency received a petition, dated July 4, 2017, from one Yusuf Dankofa & Co., solicitors of Saba Products Co. Nig. Limited, on behalf of their client, one Alhaji Mohammed Kabiru, who alleged that the defendant diverted the sum, which accrued from the sale of five units of vehicles; four units of Range Rover Envogue, (2011/2012 model) and one unit Toyota Sienna (2012 model) valued at about N10,000,000.
The petitioner alluded that Auwal collected the said vehicles in 2013 from the complainant to sell at his car stand in Abuja, but when the vehicles were not sold as agreed, the complainant requested for plots of land in lieu of the value of the five vehicles at N65 million, and every efforts made to recover the said sum failed, prompting him to petition the EFCC in 2017.
Count one reads: “That you, Alhaji Auwal Ila, sometime in 2013 in Abuja within the jurisdiction of this honourable court, while being trusted by Mohammed Kabiru and Aliyu Lawan Aliyu to sell and remit the proceeds of sale of four units of Range Rover Envogue, valued at N56,000,000 and one unit of Toyota Sienna valued at N9,000,000, dishonesty converted the said properties to your own use and hereby committed an offence contrary to Section 311 of the Penal code and punishable under Section 312 of the same Code”.
The defendant pleaded not guilty to the charges, prompting the prosecution counsel, Faruk Abdullah to request for a trial date, and for the court to remand the defendant in a correctional facility.
Counsel to the defendant, B. A. Wali, however, urged the court to grant the defendant bail.
Justice S. Belgore granted bail to the defendant in the sum of N5,000,000, with one surety in like sum and who must be a civil servant not below Grade Level 5, with a letter of appointment and must deposit his passport-sized photograph with the court.
He remanded the defendant in the custody of the EFCC custody pending the perfection of his bail conditions and adjourned the case till March 23, 2020, for trial.
