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A Supervisory Councillor from Mafa Local Government Area, Borno State, Umar Ibrahim and one Bulama Ali Zangebe, have been sentenced to fours years each in prison for diverting 180 bags of rice meant for internally displaced persons (IDPs) in the Local Government.
They were prosecuted before Justice F. Umaru of the Borno State High Court on a 4-count charge bordering on conspiracy to sell and misappropriate the proceed of rice meant for the IDPs.
Ibrahim was arrested alongside Zangebe and Modu Bulama, for allegedly diverting the bags of rice donated by Danish Refugee Council (DRC), a Non Governmental Organization, for victims of insurgency in Mafa Local Government,
Justice Umaru sentenced both convicts to two years and a fine of N1m each on the charge of criminal misappropriation and two years in prison for conspiracy. The N50,000 recovered from the agents that sold the rice was ordered forfeited to the Borno State Government.
One of the charges read: “That you, UMAR IBRAHIM and one SHETTIMA LAWAN MAINA (now at large) sometime in November, 2016 at Maiduguri, Borno State within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court dishonestly converted to your personal use the sum of N1,440,000.00 (one million, four hundred and forty thousand naira) only, being the proceeds from the sales of 180 bags of rice meant for Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) of Mafa Local Government Area of Borno State contrary to and punishable under Sections 308 and 309 of the Penal Code Law Cap 345, Laws of the Northern States of Nigeria respectively”.