Alleged N12m land scam lands two men in court

Two men, Kabiru Sanusi and Abdulfatai Wasiu, on Thursday appeared before a Chief Magistrates’ Court, Kaduna, for allegedly collecting N12 million from a man under the guise of buying him acres of land.

The accused persons, Sanusi, 44, and Wasiu, 40, are facing charges of conspiracy, fraud, forgery and stealing.

They, however, pleaded not guilty to the charges.

The Prosecutor, Inspector Chidi Leo told the court that the accused persons committed the offences with some other people still at large sometime in August. at Maraba Rido, Kaduna.

The prosecutor said the accused persons obtained the sum of N12 million from the complainant, Haruna Usman, that they would sell to him acres of land for agricultural purposes, a representation they knew was false.

Leo also alleged that they also forged a survey plan with a layout and backdated it.

“The accused persons absconded with the money to an unknown destination and all efforts to reach them proved abortive.

“They were later apprehended by the police,’’ the prosecutor said.

He said the offences contravened the Penal Code of Kaduna State, 2017.

The Magistrate, Ibrahim Emmanuel, granted the accused persons bail in the sum of N1 million each with two sureties in like sum.

Emmanuel said the sureties should be gainfully employed and should show evidence of tax payments to the Kaduna State Government.

He said that one of the sureties should be related to the defendants and he adjourned the case until Aug. 18 for a hearing.