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From Tony John, Port Harcourt
A Chief Magistrate’s Court sitting in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, has declared that the court lacks jurisdiction to entertain the criminal matter brought before it, in alleged forex scam and refused bail applications sought for the detained son of a director at National Agricultural Biotechnology Development Agency (NABDA) in Abuja.
The suspect, Salihu Nasiru Ibrahim, 22, was allegedly lured from Abuja to Port Harcourt, with a promise of a relationship to be able to pull him down from Abuja to Port Harcourt.
Police and other persons involved in the matter were said to be under pressure to get the detained suspect out of custody, and stay off the case after the forex racket involving N15 million for procurement of US dollars in a foreign exchange deal went sour
The suspect could neither produce the dollars nor the money transferred to him through his account in three tranches after Salihu claimed his father’s contact in CBN would facilitate the exchange and for his father to be held if anything happens while the transaction lasted and money paid to him.
Salihu Ibrahim is standing trial before Chief Magistrate A.O. Amadi-Nna, at the Rivers State Magistrate Court 10 in Port Harcourt on a two count charge.
According to the charge sheet sighted by our reporter, Salihu is accused of obtaining N15 million from Grace Ogolo,to help her convert it to US dollars within the Central Bank of Nigeria government approved rate but was said not to have carried out the assignment and did not return the money since July, 2022.
The charge sheet earlier obtained by our correspondent and signed
by a superintendent of Police (SP) Sewari Alpheaus, said the offence contravened section 1(b,c) and is punishable under ction 1(2,3) of the advance Fee fraud laws of the Federation, 2006.
On count two, the court said that Salihu Ibrahim also forged police identity card to be regarded as a police officer, which the prosecution told the court last week that more forgeries were discovered in the cause of their investigation.
In his ruling on the case, Amadi-Nna, held that on count 1 felony falls under the federal laws of Nigeria on Advance Fee Fraud and, therefore, lacks jurisdiction to grant bail.
The court also held that on count two, the matter would be referred to the Director of Public Prosecution (DPP) for advice to the 9th of March 2023.
The magistrate admitted that the law to which the suspect was charged to court was a Federal law, and he lacks jurisdiction to grant bail.
He added that the amount involved in the scam was too much that he could not grant bail, and referred the case file to DPP for legal advice.
The matter was adjourned to March 9, 2023, to hear the outcome of DPP advice either to grant bail or file or begin another round of legal battles based DPP information to the High court.
