A visa fraudster, identified as Malam Lauwali Usman was on Monday convicted before Justice Abubakar Jauro, of the Gombe State High Court, on a one count charge bordering on fraud.
Malam Usman was convicted after pleading guilty to the one count charge.
According to the statement by the operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) the Visa fraudster Malam Usman’s journey to jail started before the 2019 general elections when he invited some people asking them to submit their international passports for the lesser Hajj to Saudi Arabia.
The purpose for the lesser Hajj, according to him, was to take them to Saudi Arabia to offer prayers in favour of a political party and its candidates on contractual basis. .
Some of his victims, however, submitted their international passports to him while seven of them that have no international passports pay the sum of N23, 000, (Twenty Three Thousand Naira) each to procure one.
The victims explained that after collecting the money, the convict called them few days after and told them that the person conveying their passports to Kano State for visa processing was involved in ghastly motor accident and that all the passports were burnt, adding that they were going to pay another N23, 000 (Twenty Three Thousand Naira), each for the replacement.
Sensing foul play, the petitioners contacted the EFCC and the convict was arrested on January 2019, at Tashan Bauchi area, within the Gombe Metropolitan City. He was arrested at the point of collecting money from one of the victims.
A search warrant executed in the suspect’s house showed all the international passports of the victims and other incriminating items in his possession, which were recovered from him by the EFCC operatives.