Justice J.E. Iyang of Federal High Court sitting in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State on Friday, May 8th 2020, convicted and sentenced one Muhammad Halim Ogbobio, self-styled coordinator of Bayelsa State Muslim Pilgrims Welfare Board, to 28 years imprisonment.
The convict, who allegedly paraded himself as the coordinator of Muslim Pilgrims Welfare Board from 2009-2012, was arraigned by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, Port Harcourt Zonal office, on March 19, 2015, on a 5-count charge bordering on forgery and obtaining money by false pretence to the tune of Twelve Million One Hundred and Thirty Naira (N12,130,000.00) in bogus hajj fees.
The victims (Muslim Pilgrims) were allegedly introduced to the convict by one Adodo Yusuf Oristsegbubemi and they paid him a total of Twelve Million One Hundred and Thirty Naira (N12,130,000.00) for slots in the 2012 Hajj.
Trapped in Ogbobio’s fraudulent scheme, they could not make it to Saudi Arabia for the hajj exercise and all efforts to retrieve their money failed.