A 41-year-old man, Witness Sandy Udokpoh, has been sentenced to 10 years in prison for forgery and obtaining by false pretence, following his conviction Wednesday by the Akwa Ibom State High Court sitting in Uyo.
Justice Okon Okon delivered the judgment in the suit number HU/25C/2018, between the Federal Republic of Nigeria against the convict, who claimed to be a sub-contractor with a road construction company, China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation (CCECC).
Udokpoh was arraigned, 21st May, 2018, with three counts charge of obtaining property by false pretense, punishable under section one subsection 1 (a) of the Advanced Fee Fraud and other Related Offences Act, 2006, and forgery of document, contrary to section four-nine-five of the Criminal Code, Laws of Akwa Ibom State of Nigeria, 2000.
He was said to have altered the letterhead of CCECC and presented a fake document, purported to be a local purchase order from the company to one Samuel Godwin Ekanem, who supplied the firm with diesel, worth over 8 million naira in addition to 555, 000 naira cash he gave to the convict.
In his evidence before the Court, the prosecution witness said efforts to arrest Udokpoh proved abortive, until February, 2018, when he went to the Uyo Zonal Office of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission and saw him in the EFCC custody for a different but similar crime.
Justice Okon, in a one-hour judgment said the evidence adduced by the prosecution was overwhelming.
For obtaining by false pretense, the Court sentenced him to seven years in prison without option of fine, while in count two (forgery), it convicted the accused to three years imprisonment with one hundred thousand Naira fine.
Justice Okon held that the sentences are to run concurrently.
Blueprint Correspondent reports that when the Court asked the convict for allocutus, having been found guilty, he refused to make any comment, as he remains mute in the Courtroom.
