‘I and many others have given her different sums of money at different times either in cash, or through cash deposits into her bank account for the purpose of securing employment for my son with the Nigerian Prisons Service.’
This was the testimony of Prosecution Witness 2 (PW2) of the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) at a resumed hearing in a case involving one Hassana Danladi of Nigerian Prisons Service (NPS) who was standing trial for alleged job racketeering.
The PW2, while being cross-examined, stated that she was introduced to Danladi by one Pastor Yakubu Wambai to help her son secure a job with the Prisons Service, who said that the accused had already helped his daughter in that regard.
The PW2 further told the court how she and a few other unsuspecting job-seekers had paid large sums of money to the accused without gaining any employment.
Sensing that the entire process was a scam, she quickly ran to ICPC to lodge a complaint which the Commission investigated.
After the investigation, the defendant in a charge No: FCT/HC/CR/55/2015, had been arraigned on a 9-count charge before Honourable Justice C.U. Ndukwe of FCT High Court 37, Kuje, for violating Section 10 of the Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Act, 2000, which proscribes corrupt demand or receipt of any benefit by a public officer in the discharge of their official duties.
This section of the ICPC law also stipulates that any public officer, who engages in the aforementioned act, shall be guilty of an offence of official corruption and shall on conviction be liable to seven (7) years imprisonment.
The accused person had pleaded not guilty to all the charges and that set the tone for the trial to commence.
After the testimony of PW2, the judge adjourned the case to 15th March, 2017, to enable ICPC present more witnesses.