A Nigerian church accountant has been sentenced to 18 years in prison for stealing donations.
Ibrahim Aku of the Church of Brethren in Nigeria’s Adamawa State was sentenced over the theft of $43,000 (15 million Naira) belonging to the church.
Nigeria’s Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) arraigned Aku before the Adamawa State High Court after the church petitioned the Commission, Vanguard reports.
Investigations by the EFCC found out that Aku had embezzled the money.
The court heard that Aku was entrusted by the church to deposit the church’s revenue into its accounts, but he ended up diverting same and forged bank tellers to balance the financial books.
With an accomplice who is now on the run, Aku forged the stamps of the banks which were used in carrying out the fraud.
The accomplice was reported to have received 500,000 Naira from Aku to help him with the transaction.
The high court has ordered Aku to return the money to the church and that anything bought with the money be sold.
According to Vanguard, Aku pleaded guilty to six counts that included forgery and obtaining money by false pretense.
He was then sentenced to three years for each count.
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), which filed the case, tweeted about it and the sentencing at the Adamawa High Court in north-eastern Nigeria:
Church Accountant Bags 18yrs for N15.5m Fraud
— EFCC Nigeria (@officialEFCC) January 13, 2020
The EFCC Gombe Zonal Office on January 13, 2020, secured the conviction of one Ibrahim Aku before Justice Nathan Musa of the Adamawa State High Court.#SayNoToCorruption #EFCCFightsForYou pic.twitter.com/j2Nv9NKDgi
Aku, an Accountant at EYN Church of Christ (Ekilisiyar Yen Uwa Nigeria), EYN, Church of Brethren in Nigeria (CBN) in the state was charged with six counts bordering on forgery and obtaining money by false pretence.
— EFCC Nigeria (@officialEFCC) January 13, 2020
He was investigated and prosecuted following a petition by the church through Rev. (Dr). Daniel Mbaya an Secretary General of the Church alleging that Aku defrauded the church of N15.5million between 2016 and 2018.
— EFCC Nigeria (@officialEFCC) January 13, 2020
Investigations by the EFCC, revealed that the money was generated by the church members by offerings, donations and tithe.
— EFCC Nigeria (@officialEFCC) January 13, 2020
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Meanwhile, residents of a Muslim community in Uganda have been left in shock after an Imam realized after two weeks of marriage that his spouse is a man.
Sheikh Mohammed Mutumba, the Imam of Kyampisi Masjid Noor mosque in Kayunga District, Central Uganda, has so far been suspended as investigations begin into the incident.
According to the Daily Monitor, Mutumba, a resident of Kyampisi Village in Kayunga Sub-County, Kayunga District, exchanged vows with his ‘wife’ Swabullah Nabukeera in Islamic culture or Nikah.
Mutumba had met Nabukeera at the Kyampisi mosque where he had gone for prayers.
“I was looking for a woman to marry and when I landed on a beautiful girl wearing a hijab, I asked her for love and she accepted. We fell in love, however, she told me we could not have sex until I take dowry to her parents and also exchange marriage vows,” Mutumba said.
Even after their marriage, for two weeks, the couple did not go intimate as the bride claimed that she was in her menses.
