Court sentences Mohammed Gobir to 7 years imprisonment over  N300m fraud

Justice R.I.B. Adebiyi of the Lagos State High Court in Ikeja has handed down a seven-year prison sentence to Mohammed Gobir after finding him guilty of defrauding a company of over ₦300 million.

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) revealed in a statement on Thursday that Gobir’s legal troubles began following his arrest by EFCC operatives at his Ikoyi residence on September 12, 2015. The arrest was prompted by a petition filed by an outdoor advertising firm, Afromedia Plc.

“Gobir, according to the petitioner, was introduced to the Company by its private placement consultants, Synergy Capital Advisory Limited, sometime in 2008.

“He, thereafter, offered to invest the sum of N1billion in Afromedia, a pretext that earned him a position as Chairman, Business Development Committee, on the Board of Directors.

“Investigation revealed that Gobir, having earned the trust of the company’s Board, defrauded the company of several millions in hard currency.

“He was subsequently arraigned on March 17, 2016 by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, on a 17-count charge bordering on obtaining under false pretence, stealing, possession of fraudulent documents and forgery,” the statement said.

One of the charges detailed how Gobir, in his capacity as a non-executive director and head of Afromedia’s Business Development Committee, allegedly deceived the company between January 2009 and December 2011. He reportedly claimed that ₦514 million was required to process a fictitious $70 million investment from a supposed $250 million held in his NATWEST Bank account in the UK.

The charge reads:“That you, Mohammed Gobir, a non-Executive Director and Chairman of Business Development Committee of Afromedia Plc, between January 2009 and December 2011 in Lagos, within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court, with intent to defraud, obtained the sum of N514,457,151.87 (Five Hundred and Fourteen Million, Four Hundred and Fifty Seven Thousand, One Hundred and Fifty One Naira, Eighty Seven Kobo) from Afromedia Plc by falsely pretending to Afromedia Plc that the said sum of money represented the cost of facilitating and securing the sum of $70,000,000 (Seventy Million Dollars) from your account in NATWEST Bank, London, United Kingdom as your investment fund in Afromedia Plc out of the $250,000,000 (Two Hundred and Fifty Million United States Dollars) stashed in your account at NATWEST Bank, London, United Kingdom which pretence you knew to be false and thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 1(3) of the Advance Fee Fraud and Other Fraud Related Offences Act, No . 14, 2006.”

Gobir denied all charges, leading to a full trial.

During proceedings, prosecution lawyer Nnaemeka Omewa called four witnesses and presented multiple documents, all admitted as evidence. In his defence, Gobir’s counsel Y.B. Bayero presented three witnesses.

According to the statement, on Wednesday, Justice Adebiyi found him guilty on several counts: one count of obtaining by false pretence, two counts of stealing, and four counts related to the possession of fraudulent documents.

He received a seven-year sentence for the count of obtaining by false pretence, and six months each for the stealing charges. All sentences will run concurrently.

In addition to the prison term, the court ordered Gobir to repay $1 million and ₦123 million to Afromedia, as restitution for the amounts linked to the stealing charges.

However, he was acquitted of the charges of forgery and possession of forged documents.