The EFCC stated that Okonkwu was arrested by operatives following a written petition dated June 19, 2019, by one Aisha Shittu who alleged that the defendant defrauded her under the pretext of supplying her with a Shortware Diathermy Machine.
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission has arraigned a company's Managing Director, Solomon Okonkwu, at a Kano State High Court sitting in Gezawa, for allegedly defrauding a female client of N2.6million.
The EFCC stated that Okonkwu was arrested by operatives following a written petition dated June 19, 2019, by one Aisha Shittu who alleged that the defendant defrauded her under the pretext of supplying her with a Shortware Diathermy Machine.
Investigation confirmed that N1,500,000 and N1,150,000 were paid into the defendant’s First Bank account and the Diamond Bank account of one Solomon Ikechukwu Okonkwu respectively.
Efforts to produce the equipment or recover the money were futile.
Okonkwu was arraigned on Wednesday before Justice Hadiza Suleiman of the Kano State High Court, for obtaining the money under false pretence.
One of the charges reads, “That you, Solomon Ikechukwu Okonkwu, being the Managing Director of POLNIL Limited, sometime between November 2014 and November 2015 in Kano, within the jurisdiction of this honourable court dishonestly misappropriated the sum of N2,650,000 entrusted to you by Aisha Shittu for the supply of one unit of Shortmare Diathermy (model mettle 395) and you thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 311 of the Penal Code and punishable to Section 312 of the Penal Code.”
The defendant pleaded "not guilty" when the charge was read to him.
Prosecution counsel, Sadiq Hussein, applied to the court for a short date and also an order to remand the defendant in a correctional centre.
The defence counsel, however, applied orally to the court for the bail of the defendant.
Hussein opposed the oral application for bail.
Justice Suleiman adjourned the matter till February 22, 2021, for trial, and ordered that the defendant be remanded at the Central Correctional Centre, Kano.