By John Ogunsemore
Justice M.S. Idris of the FCT High Court sitting in Jabi, Abuja has sentenced Solomon Ogodo, a Superintendent of the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), to seven years in a correctional facility for involvement in forgery, employment racketeering and fraud.
Justice Idris passed the sentence on Monday.
The Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) had in December 2022 arraigned Ogodo in charge no: CR/503/2022 before the court for defrauding unsuspecting job seekers to the tune of N12.2 million.
In a five-count charge, the commission told the court how the convict on different occasions hoodwinked some members of the public into parting with different sums of money in the guise of securing employments for their relatives in the Nigeria Correctional Services (NCoS).
In the course of the trial, ICPC’s prosecutor, Hamza Sani led evidence before the court on how Ogodo forged offers of provisional appointments for some applicants into the Nigeria Correctional Services.
The prosecution said his actions are contrary to Section 13 and punishable under Section 68 of the Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Act 2000, and contrary to Section 363 and punishable under Section 364 of the Penal Code Act.
The prosecution said the actions also violated and are punishable under Section 1 of the Advanced Fee Fraud and Other Related Offence Act of 2006.
Shortly before sentencing on Monday, A. A Nwoye, who held brief for Defence Counsel, Osita O. Eze, urged the court to convert any jail term to community service for the convict.
However, the prosecution counsel moved that the court should take cognisance of Section 319 (1) (a) of the Administration of Criminal Justice ACT (ACJA) 2015 to mandate the convict to pay compensation of all the sum collected to the victims of his action.
In his judgement, Justice Idris sentenced Ogodo to seven years imprisonment on count 1 to 3 (without option of fine) and two-months imprisonment or option of fine of N5,000 naira on Count 4.
The convict equally bagged two months imprisonment on Count 5 of the charge without option of fine.
The court also agreed with the submission of the prosecution brought under section 319 (1) of ACJA by ordering the convict to restitute all he received from his victims in the course of his illegal action.