Dismissed NSCDC staff jailed for duping own friends of N136,000

A Senior Magistrates’ Court, Wuse Zone 2, Abuja, on Monday sentenced a 31-year-old dismissed staff of Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, Adeshola Adewumi, to four months in prison for cheating his friends. The Magistrate, Mrs Elizabeth Jones, convicted Adewumi, who resides at Dutse Alhaji, Abuja, after he pleaded guilty to a two-count charge of criminal breach of trust and cheating.
Jones said the sentences would run concurrently and gave the convict an option to pay N20, 000 fine.

She also ordered him to pay the complainants Uguru Emmanuel and Okuaka Joel a compensation of N80, 000 and N56, 000, respectively.

The convict, before the sentence, had begged for leniency and also promised to desist from committing crime.
“I am sorry for the act I committed and I am pleading with the court not to convict me as I promise to pay back their money.
“I collected the money from them to help them but when NSCDC shortlisted candidate names, their names were not among.

“Though I was sacked in January from NSCDC after a 21 days absence from work, all I intended doing for them was to help,” the convict said.
Earlier, the prosecuting counsel, Mr Patrick Ebong, had told the court that on June 3, Joel of Suleija, Niger and Emmanuel of Lokogoma Apo, Abuja, lodged a complaint at the Wuse Police Station.
Ebong told the court that sometimes in June, the convict who was the complainants’ secondary school classmate, called them and said that his office, the Nigeria Security Civil Defence Corps was recruiting.

He said the convict told them that he could get them recruited but that they should pay some money, totaling N136, 000.
“After collecting the said amount, the convict absconded to an unknown destination and refused to pick up their calls until on July 9, when he was sighted and arrested,” he said.
The prosecutor said the offence contravened sections 312 and 322 of the Penal Code.