By Patience Yakubu
A Kaduna Chief Magistrates’ Court on Monday ordered that a 38-year-old travel agent, Gabriel James, charged with N2.4 million visa be remanded in a correctional centre.
Magistrate Ibrahim Emmanuel, gave the order after the prosecutor, Insp Chidi Leo, pleaded that the defendant be remanded because investigation into the matter is ongoing.
Emmanuel adjourned the matter until March 9 for hearing.
James, who resides a in Kinkinau, Kaduna, is charged with breach of trust and cheating.
The prosecutor, told the court that Hannah Williams and Thomas Francis, reported the matter at the Gabasawa Police Station Kaduna on Jan. 15.
According to the prosecutor, sometime in Aug. 2021, the defendant obtained N1.2m each from the complainants on the pretext of being a travel agent and could assist them in securing a travel visa to the U.S. and United Arab Emirates.
The defendant, he said, approached the complainants claiming he was a travel agent.
“After collecting the money from the complainants, he absconded.
Efforts, he said, made by the complainants to get the visa or retrieve the money from the defendant failed.
He added that the defendant was arrested on Feb. 1, at his house after the complainants got his address from his friend.
The prosecutor said that the offence contravened the provisions of sections 287 and 314 of the Penal Code of Kaduna State, 2017.
The defendant had pleaded not guilty to the charge.(NAN)
