EFCC Arraigns Man For Alleged N8.1m Land Fraud In Enugu

The Enugu Zonal Directorate of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, has charged one Paulinus Ani to court over falsified land documents intended to defraud and obtain over N8m from a buyer in Enugu State.

The case was presided over by Justice Mohammed Garba Umar of the Federal High Court sitting in Independence Layout, Enugu State.

The lone count charge reads: “That you, Paulinus Ani sometime between October, 2015 and June, 2018 at Enugu, Enugu State within the jurisdiction of this Honourable court, with intent to defraud, induced one Severus Ifeanyi Odoziobodo to deliver to you the sum of N8,130,000.00 (Eight Million, One Hundred and Thirty Thousand Naira) under the pretence that you would sell to him (7) plots of land: three (3) plots at Emene Industrial/Residential Layout and four (4) plots at Independence Layout Phase II, Enugu, which pretence you knew to be false and thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 1 (1) (a) of the Advance Fee Fraud and Other Fraud Related Offences Act No. 14 of the 2006 and punishable under Section 1 (3) of the same Act”.

The defendant’s legal case started on January 1, 2021, when a petition was filed by Ifeanyi Odoziobodo, who claimed that the defendant, a former worker at the Ministry of Land and Urban Development in Enugu State, had offered him some land plots in the Emene and Independence Layout of the State in 2016 claiming that the plots were up for sale.

Unaware that those particular plots had previously been sold to other individuals who had received Certificates of Occupancy, the petitioner paid the defendant N8,130,000 after being shown allocation papers to that effect.

However, the defendant’s attempts to get his money back were unsuccessful.

EFCC’s lawyer, Nasir Umar, asked the court for a new trial date and for the defendant to be sent to the Enugu Correctional Facility even though he pleaded not guilty to the charge.

However, the defence counsel O. S. Imaji urged the court to grant the defendant lenient terms of bail, noting that the defendant had a trustworthy guarantor.

In response, the prosecution strongly objected to the motion, arguing that “land scams are becoming common in Enugu” and urged the court to reject it.

At the end of the court hearing, the defendant was placed under detention in the Enugu Correctional Facility while being given an option of N10 million bail and to present two guarantors both of whom had to be Enugu state citizens which must be met before being released.

The trial was then postponed until January 23, 2025.