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| Azeez Yakubu Afolayan |
The trial of Azeez Yakubu Afolayan, who impersonated the Comptroller General of the Nigerian Customs Service, Col. Hameed Ali (retd) to engage in employment scam, continued on March 19, 2019 with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, Ilorin Zonal Office, presenting its first witness.
Afolayan was on March 14, 2019 arraigned before Justice M. Abdulgafar of a Kwara State High Court sitting in Ilorin, on a four-count charge bordering on impersonation, job scam and obtaining money under false pretence.
Giving evidence, the witness, Emmanuel Furo, an Assistant Superintendent of Custom, narrated how the defendant was arrested following a complaint by one Abdulrasaq Afolayan, a victim.
He said “on 13th of January 2019, one Mr Afolayan came to our office to lodge complain that the accused person promised to secure him a job at the Nigerian Custom Services, he had collected various sum of monies from him, the complainant came to find out if the Nigerian Custom Services was actually doing recruitment or not. We told him that the Custom does not collect money from anyone for recruitment.
“We went to his house, we arrested him and recovered different fake application forms of the Nigerian Custom Services at his house, all the application forms does not emanate from the Nigerian Custom Services.”
Justice Abdulgafar after the proceedings adjourned the case to April 3, 2019 for continuation of trial and ordered the defendant to be taken back to Oke-Kura prison.
One of the counts against him reads: “That you, Yakubu Azeez Afolayan, between the months of November 2018 and January 2018 in Ilorin, within the jurisdiction of this honourable court, with the intent to defraud, obtained the gross sum of N267,000 (Two Hundred and Sixty-Seven Thousand Naira) only from one Usman Janet Opeyemi through your UBA account number under the false pretence that you are capable of securing employment for her son with the Nigerian Customs Services; the representation you knew to be false and thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 1 (a) of the Advance Fee Fraud and other Fraud Related Offences Act 2006, and punishable under Section 1 (3) of the same Act.”
