N2.2m Fraud: Court Sentence Airtel Staff To 5 Years Jail Term

The Lagos State Magistrate Court has sentenced a customer care representative of Airtel Nigeria Limited, Jeremiah Mustapha to five years jail term for facilitating a N2.2m fraud.

According to reports, Mustapha was arraigned on June 14, 2017, alongside Nurudeen Salimu on nine counts bordering on conspiracy, stealing, fraud, and diverting messages from a phone number to another.

It was gathered that the duo and others at large committed the offenses on October 10, 2016, while Mustapha used his position as Airtel customer care representative to divert all the SMS and calls from an Airtel number 08023843032 belonging to one Kazeem Dele to another number.

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Mustapha, according to the prosecutor, Cyriacus Osuji, unlawfully disconnected all network services linked to the number without the consent of the owner.

“The number swap aided the second defendant to steal the sum of N2.2m from the Skye Bank account of the complainant. The second defendant forged the signature of the complainant, falsely represented himself as the owner of the account, and withdrew the said sum from the account,” Osuji stated.

The offenses were said to be contrary to and punishable under sections 287, 333(1), 340, 334, 365(1), 337, 380, 411and 415 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2015.

Delivering judgment on Tuesday, Magistrate A. G. Omoyele convicted Mustapha on five out of the nine counts and sentenced him to one-year imprisonment on each count without an option of fine.

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