The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, on Monday, June 21, 2021 secured the conviction and sentencing of Musa Ibrahim Datti, a Director of Katah Property and Investment Limited to 7years imprisonment before Justice Ijeoma Ojukwu of the Federal High Court, Abuja.
Justice Ojukwu found the defendant guilty on three of the 13 counts brought against him by the EFCC and sentenced him to 7 years on each count. The sentences are to run concurrently. The defendant was however given the option of fine of N100m on each count.
The two companies in the charge, Sadiq Air Travels Agency Ltd and Katah Property & Investment Ltd, were ordered to return 100 percent of the funds acquired and their statutory license withdrawn.
Datti had denied ownership of his signature as director and signatory to the accounts of the companies, which received about N6billion in suspicious payments. However, the prosecution in the course of trial proved that he was indeed, signatory to the accounts of the companies.
EFCC arraigned the trio on June 28, 2018, on a 13 count charge bordering on corruption and money Laundering to the tune of over N6 billion.
Count one of the charge reads, “That you, Musa Ibrahim Datti, being a signatory to Katah Property and Investment Limited, a company incorporated in Nigeria, Alhaji Takpa Baba ( still at large) being a director of Katah Property and Investment Limited and Alhaji Liman Isah Kantigi, a.k.a Mohammed Abdullahi Musa (still at large), being a signatory in the name of Alhaji Takpa Baba with a Glo phone number; 080151722706 in Katah Property and Investment Limited bank account number 0128615097 domiciled in Guaranty Trust Bank Plc, sometime between 2014 and 2015 in Abuja within the jurisdiction of this Honorable Court did conspire among yourselves to commit an illegal act to wit; money laundering of the total sum of N2.028 billion only comprising of a fixed deposit of N1.998 billion only and N30.020 million whilst Alhaji Liman Isah Isah Kantigi, a.k.a Mohammed Abdulahi Musa, held the positions of Chairman, Edati Local Government Area Council of Niger State, Chairman of Association of Local Government Chairmen in Nigeria ( ALGON (2011-2013), Commissioner, Ministry for Local Government, Community Development & Chieftaincy Affairs, Niger State Government of Nigeria (2014 to 2015), when you knew or reasonably ought to have known that the said funds is, or forms part of the proceeds of an unlawful act of Alhaji Liman Isah Kantigi, a.k.a Mohammed Abdullahi, to wit; Corruption and thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 1B(a) of the Money Laundering ( Prohibition ) Act, 2011 as amended in 2012 and punishable under Section 15(3) and (4) of the same Act”.
