A Jimeta Chief Magistrates’ Court in Yola on Wednesday ordered the remand of a 25-year-old man, Abdulkadir Usman, for allegedly impersonating as an army officer and defrauding three persons of N1.3 million.
The presiding judge, Justice Musa Adamu, ordered that the defendant be remanded at the correctional facility until August 16.
He said that the decision was to allow further investigation and witnesses to corroborate the defendant’s plea of guilt and possible summary trial.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Usman of Hospital Road, Jimeta, Yola, had pleaded guilty to a two-count charge bordering on impersonation and cheating.
“I plead guilty to the crime, and I ask that the court have mercy on me.
“I am not a military personnel. I decided to wear the uniform of my friend, who is an army officer, and the idea came to me to use it and collect money,” Usman said.
The prosecutor, ASP Ezra Bulus, however, prayed the court to adjourn the matter to August 16 for further investigation and to provide witnesses to corroborate the defendant’s plea of guilt.
Earlier, Bulus had told the court that three complainants, Sadiq Lawan, Nasir Lawan, and Abubakar Abdullahi, all of Jimeta Yola, reported the matter at the police station on May 5.
Bulus had alleged that the defendant, sometime in 2023, falsely presented himself in full military uniform as an army officer, claiming that he had job slots in the military recruitment process.
He said that the defendant paraded himself with the intent to defraud and obtained the sum of N1.3 million from the complainants as a recruitment fee for the job offer.
The prosecutor told the court that Usman, after several months, absconded with the money, which made the complainants visit his family house, where they discovered that he was not an officer as claimed.
Bulus said the alleged offence contravened the provisions of Sections 312 and 145 of the Penal Code of Adamawa, 2018. (NAN)
