Justice Mohammed Nasir Yunusa of the Federal High Court, Kano
on Wednesday, February 28, 2024, convicted and sentenced three illegal bureaude change operators to three years imprisonment for operating without a
requisite licence.
The convicts: Umar Ibrahim Muhammad, Abubakar Yakubu Garba
and Muhammad Tijjani were jailed after pleading guilty to one-count
separate charges of illegal dealing in foreign currency without an
appropriate licence.
The lone-count charge reads: “That you Ibrahim Muhammad,
sometime in February 2024 in Kano within the jurisdiction of this honourable
court did engage in a financial operation of bureau de change without a valid
licence and you thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 57 (5) of the
Banks and Other Financial Institutions Act 2020 and punishable under Section 57
(5) (B) of the same Act.”
They all pleaded “guilty” to the charge read to them in
English and interpreted in Hausa, upon which prosecution counsel, Aisha Tahar
Habib prayed the court to convict and sentence them accordingly, while the
defence counsel pleaded for mercy and leniency.
Justice Yunusa thereafter convicted and sentenced
Muhammad, Garba and Tijani to one year imprisonment each with an option of fine
of N100,000(One Hundred Thousand Naira) each.
Their road to jail began when they were arrested by operatives of the Kano Command of the EFCC for operating a BDC without an appropriate licence.
