The Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) Superintendent, Mr. Solomon Ogodo, has been found guilty of forgery, employment racketeering, and fraud by the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offenses Commission (ICPC).
This was announced by the commission on Tuesday in a post on its X microblogging site.
In December 2022, Mr. Ogodo was arraigned by the ICPC before Hon. Justice M.S. Idris of the Federal Capital Territory, FCT High Court, Abuja, with charge number CR/503/2022.
For scamming unwary job seekers out of N12,200,000, he was charged.
According to the ICPC’s five-count accusation, the defendant had deceived several unsuspecting Nigerians into paying varying amounts of money on multiple occasions under the pretense of getting them jobs with the Nigeria Correctional Services, or NCoS.
During the trial, Mr. Hamza Sani, the prosecutor for the ICPC, spoke in court about how the convicted individual had falsified offers of temporary positions for certain applicants to the NCoS.
The commission claims that his activities violate Section 13 of the Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offenses Act 2000 and are punishable under Section 68.
The activities also breached and are penalized under Section 1 of the Advanced Fee Fraud and Other Related Offence Act of 2006, the ICPC added, adding that the offense is against Section 363 and punishable under Section 364 of the Penal Code Act.
Counsel representing Mr. Ogodo, Mr. A. A. Nwoye, begged the court to change the jail term to community service for the convicted individual just before the jail sentence was handed down on Monday.
On his behalf, the prosecution’s attorney requested that the court consider section 319 (1) an of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act (ACJA) 2015, which requires the convicted party to reimburse the victims of his actions for the whole amount he has received.
In his ruling, Judge M.S. Idris sentenced Mr. Ogodo to seven years in prison on counts one through three (without the possibility of a fee) and two months in prison or a five thousand naira fine on count four.
On count five of the charge, the convicted party was also sentenced to two months in prison without the possibility of a fine.
