A 46-year-old man Chukwuka Jude has been sentenced to 18 months imprisonment for cheating and impersonation.
A Chief Magistrates Court in Gusau presided by Sa’ad Garba, on Tuesday sentenced Chukwuka Jude, to six months for cheating with an option of a N50,000 fine and one year for impersonation.
Garba, however, said the two sentences would run consecutively if the accused fails to pay a sum of N50,000 fine.
Jude’s sentence, read to him by the Chief Magistrate, followed his confession to the allegations.
The convict was arrested for faking as a lawyer and parading himself with fake identity cards and documents,
Prosecutor for the state, Muhammed Jafaru, told the Court that Jude had put up several appearances in an Upper Sharia Court in Gusau and that he was arrested and a fake plastic ID, stamp letterhead carrying his Chamber, Titled J.N Monyei & Co. Chambers, were recovered from him.
“On 18th January 2022 at about 1630hrs, the Zamfara State Police Command received a complaint from the Chairman of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Zamfara State Chapter that on the same date, one Chukwuka Jude ‘M’ a 46-yr-old, was caught inside the Higher Sharia Court T/Wada Gusau, falsely acting as a lawyer to a client.”
According to him, the accused person had received different amounts as fees from his clients.
The prosecution disclosed that the fake lawyer confessed to the crime and attempted to bribe the police with N300,000 which the police officer rejected.
He, therefore, prayed court to sentence the accused accordingly to serve as a deterrent to others.
The defendant counsel, Joseph Eze, pleaded for leniency for his client following on his confessional statement before the chief magistrate.
Defence counsel pleaded that his client had no past criminal record and is married with seven kids, four of them minors.
Eze prayed the chief magistrate to be compassionate and consider options of fine saying sentencing his client would affect his family members.
The defence counsel commended the chief magistrate for what he termed the light sentence.