By Adenike Ayodele
Ikeja – A 25-year-old driver, Suleiman Abubakar, on Monday pleaded guilty before an Ikeja Magistrates’ Court to have impersonated and forged his employer’s bank signature.
Following his guilty plea, Magistrate Jadesola Adeyemi-Ajayi ordered that the accused should be kept behind bars pending his sentence.
The magistrate then fixed Jan. 22 for the sentence of the accused.
Abubakar, who resides in Kara near Isheri, a Lagos suburb, is facing a two-count charge of forgery and impersonation.
The prosecutor, Insp. Akeem Raji, had earlier told the court that Abubakar impersonated and forged the signature of one Samaila Rabiu, with an intent to transfer the complainant’s money into his personal account.
Raji told the court that the accused committed the offences on Dec. 3 at 9.00 a.m., at the Ojodu branch of First Bank of Nigeria, in Lagos.
Raji said that the accused had gone to the Ojodu branch of the bank where he attempted to forge the complainant’s signature with his account number.
The prosecutor said that this was to unlawfully transfer money from the complainant’s account into his own account.
“The accused was caught by some of the bank’s officials while he was perpetrating the illegal action,” he said.
The prosecutor said that the offences contravened Sections 370 and 380 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2015 (Revised).
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that both sections prescribed a seven-year jail term for offenders.
