Justice Mohammed Shuaibu of a Federal High Court in Kaduna last Thursday sentenced one Muhammad Al Ameen Al-Haleel to 15 years imprisonment for defrauding a director in Pensions Office, Dr Shuaibu Teidi, of N60m.

Teidi, who himself is currently enmeshed in N2.2 billion fraud case, had complained to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission in a case filed in December last year, that Al-Haleel had swindled him of N60million.

The current annual salary of a director in the federal civil service is about N5m.

The EFCC brought the convict before the court on an amended seven-count charge of criminal intention to defraud and obtain money from Teidi through false pretext ( a.k.a. 419).

According to the charge sheet, the convict had connived with one Mr. Smith (now at large) and obtained N10m from Teidi to enable him facilitate a meeting between him (Teidi) and Vice President Namadi Sambo in order to get nomination as governorship candidate of the People's Democratic Party, PDP, in Kogi State.

The convict further obtained N50million from Teidi and claimed that he would give the said amount to the EFCC chairman for general clearance of his case from the agency.

According to the EFCC, the offence is contrary to sections 1 (1) (a) and 8 (a) of the Advance Fee Fraud and Other Related Offences Act, 2006 and the EFCC Act, 2004.

In his verdict on the matter, Justice Shuaibu sentenced the accused accordingly and held that he was guilty as charged.

The judge further sentenced him to three years imprisonment on five of the seven-count charge without an option of fine, saying that the terms would run concurrently.

Though Teidi was the complainant in this case, he himself has been involved in a pension fraud case with the EFCC since 2010. The anti-graft agency is still on the case, which has riveted the public in the last few months.

The National Assembly is also currently investigating the matter.