Three staff of Kano Road Traffic Agency (KAROTA): Nazifi Ali Cigari, Abbas Tijjani and Ado Aminu on Thursday, October 17, 2019 pleaded guilty to an amended one-count charge of retention of proceeds of crime before Justice O.A Egwuatu of the Federal High Court Kano.
In view of their plea, prosecution counsel Musa Isah led Ekene Ikpeama, an operative of the commission, in evidence, who reviewed the fact of the case.
Ikpeama disclosed that the defendants were accomplices of one Abduljalal Salisu, who perfected the act of defrauding people by selling to them fake employment letters of Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) and Kano Road Traffic Agency (KAROTA).
The witness also revealed that upon receipt of intelligence, he and his team raided the scene of the crime, where Abduljalal was caught in the process of selling a fake employment letter to one of his victims.
“Upon receipt of the intelligence, I and my team swung into action and raided the scene of the crime which is Fine Time Park, located at Nasarawa Local Government. On reaching there, we found an individual named Abduljalal Salihu,” he said.
Ikpeama also revealed that the first defendant, Cigari was also sighted at the scene but upon seeing the operatives, he took to his heels.
When Abduljalal was brought to the Kano Zonal Office of the Commission, he disclosed in his statement that he engaged the three defendants to source for interested applicants for employment, knowing full well that the employment offers he sells were fake.
All the defendants also admitted in their statements to being accomplices in the fraud. During a search conducted in their vehicle, employment letters for FIRS and KAROTA were found all of which were confirmed fake by the two agencies.
After the review of the facts of the case, Justice Egwuatu adjourned the matter to November 7th for conviction and sentencing.