Justice H.H. Kereng of the Gombe State High Court in the state capital has handed down a one-year prison sentence to Edu Babatunde Azeez, the President of the National Association of Charcoal Producers and Exporters (NACPE).

Azeez and his company, Ablims Limited, were convicted after pleading guilty to two counts of conspiracy and obtaining under false pretences, upon being arraigned by the Gombe State Zonal Command of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

The arraignment followed a petition filed against him and his company by one Ayanbisi Ismail, where the petitioner alleged that he defrauded him of the sum of N7,183,750 and all efforts to get his money back proved abortive.

The two counts preferred against Azeez and his company state: “That you Edu Babatunde and Ablims Limited sometime in December 2022 at Gombe, Gombe State within the jurisdiction of this honourable court fraudulently obtained the sum of N7,183,750 from one Ayanbisi Ismail by falsely representing the money to be for exporting charcoal to Saudi Arabia, a representation which you knew to be false and thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 320 and punishable under Section 322 of the penal Code Law.

“That you Edu Babatunde and Ablims Limited sometime in December 2022 at Gombe, Gombe State within the jurisdiction of this honourable court  conspired amongst yourselves to do an illegal act to wit: cheating and thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 96 and punishable under Section 97(2) of the Penal code Law.”

Upon pleading guilty to the charges, prosecution counsel, A.B. Kware, asked the court to convict and sentence Azeez as charged, but counsel for the defendant, Inusa Mahammed, pleaded with the court to temper justice with mercy as the defendant is a first-time offender.

In his ruling, Justice Kereng convicted and sentenced Azeez and his company, Ablims Limited to one year imprisonment with an option of N200,000 as a fine.