N86m Contract Fraud: Civil servant sentenced to 28 years in prison

A Borno State High Court, sitting in Maiduguri, has sentenced a civil servant, Ma’aji Shettima Arfo, to 28 years imprisonment for engaging in an N86.1 million contract fraud.

Arfo, who was sentenced to jail by Justice Haruna Mshellia of Borno State High Court 3, was the General Manager of the State-owned Maiduguri Flour Mills Limited, where he committed the fraud.

He faced a six-count charge brought against him by the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) for offences bordering on abuse of office and conferring undue advantage on himself.

The charge sheet showed that Arfo, while acting as the General Manager of the Flour Mill, between 2014 and 2020, engaged in multiple fraud in violation of Sections 12 and 19 of the Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Act, 2000 and punishable under relevant Sections of the same Act.

One of the counts on which he was convicted revealed that he awarded multiple contracts to Falkwat Multilinks Limited, a private company where he was a director, to supply diesel (Automotive Gas Oil) and maize to Maiduguri Flour Mills.

Counsel to ICPC, Anas Mohammed Kolo, while arguing the case, told the court that the convict in October 2015, awarded a N4.9 million contract to Falkwat Multilinks Limited to supply 40,000 litres of diesel to the flour mills.

The court further heard how Arfo, while being a public servant, awarded several contracts between 2016 and 2017 to his private company, Falkwat Multilinks Limited, to supply maize to Maiduguri Flour Mills Limited.

The Court was told that Arfo authorized the payments of N42.1 million to his company in July 2016 for the supply of 386.45 metric tonnes of maize and another N23 million to the same company in March, 2016 to supply 306.94 metric tonnes of maize to the state-owned flour mills.

He was convicted for yet another offence in which he approved the payment of N16 million to Falkwat Multilinks to supply 217.45 metric tonnes of maize.

Spokesperson of ICPC, Mrs. Azuka Ogugua, in a statement made available to News Express Thursday, narrated that Justice Mshellia, at end of the trial, found the General Manager guilty on four counts out of six preferred against him and sentenced him to seven years imprisonment on each count. The judge ruled that prison terms will run concurrently.