Justice A.T Mohammed of the Federal High Court, sitting in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, has convicted and sentenced a contractor, Mr. Ikechukwu Francis Wopara to one year imprisonment, for issuance of a dud cheque.
The convict was arraigned and brought to trial by the Port Harcourt’s Zonal Office of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, on an amended one-count charge bordering on Advance Fee Fraud.
Specifically, he obtained forty-nine drums of Silicon Fluid worth N8.225,000 (Eight Million Two Hundred And Twenty Five Thousand Naira) from a victim, Meadoil Limited, under a false pretence of running a contract for the supply of the product to a leading oil company in the South-South. He neither supplied the product to the oil company nor returned the money to the victim.
The charge reads,” that you Ikechukwu Francis Wopara and FR. Resource Limited on or about the 13th August, 2008 at Trans Amadi Industrial layout, Port Harcourt, Rivers State, within the Jurisdiction of this Honourable Court did with intent to defraud, obtain by false pretence Forty Nine (49) Drums of Silicon Fluid M60 worth N8,225,000 (Eight Million Two Hundred and Twenty Five Thousand Naira) property of Meadoil Limited from Adeleke Akindele and Meadoil Limited, and thereby committed an Offence contrary to Section 1(1)(b) of the Advance Fee Fraud and Other Fraud Related Offences Act 2006 and punishable under Section 1(3) of the same Act”.
Justice Mohammed found Wopara guilty on the one-count charge, convicted and sentenced him to one year imprisonment and also convicted his company: F.R. Resources with a fine of N50,000 (Fifty Thousand Naira) only.
