Fake Pilgrim Board member docked over N15m scam

isaac

March 20, 2015 10:39 AM

A serial fraudster has been nabbed by the EFCC for parading himself as a member of the Muslim Pilgrim Welfare Board in Bayelsa.

Mohammed Ogbobio is now caged.

A serial fraudster who has been parading himself as a member of the Bayelsa State Muslim Pilgrim Welfare Board, Mohammed Ogbobio, has been nabbed and charged before the Federal High Court sitting in Yenagoa, the capital of the state, for duping intending pilgrims to the tune of N15,495,000.

Ogbobio was busted by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), and docked before Justice I. E Ekwo on a five-count charge bordering on obtaining money by false pretence.

In a press release by the media and publicity unit of the anti-graft agency, Ogbobio allegedly posed as a member of the board and deceived the duo of Maigoro Safyanu and Ibrahim Abdullahi, from whom he collected the money in question, under the pretence that it would be paid for the 2014 Hajj exercise. The trip, however, never materialized.

One of the charges read:

"That you, Mohammed Halim Ogbobio, on or about the 11th day of September, 2014, at Yenagoa within the jurisdiction of this Honorable Court with intent to defraud, did obtain the sum of Three Million Three Hundred and Sixty Five Thousand Naira (N3,365,000.00) only from one Maigoro Safyanu Yusuf, which was paid to into your Skye Bank Plc account no 1010839279 under the pretence that you are a member of Bayelsa State Muslim Pilgrim Welfare Board, which you knew to be false and thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 1 (1) (a) of the Advanced Free Fraud and Other Related Offences Act 2006 and punishable under Section 1 (3) of the same Act."

isaac