NDDC staff sentences to 7 years in jail for N4m contract fraud

NDDC staff sentences to 7 years in jail for N4m contract fraud, A supervisor in the Security Department of the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, has been sentenced to seven years imprisonment for N4m contract fraud. Tarila Ebizimor was convicted for obtaining money under false pretence to the tune of N4.000.000.00 (Four Million Naira). The convict was prosecuted by the Port Harcourt Zonal Office of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, on a four-count charge. According to EFCC, in August 2013, Tarila Ebizimor pretended to be a personal assistant of the managing director of the NDDC and obtained the sum of N4million from the petitioner on the pretext that he will help facilitate the award of a road construction contract to him. One of the charges against him reads: “That you Tarila Ebizimor on the 13th day of August 2013 in Port Harcourt, Rivers State within the jurisdiction of this honorable court did fraudulently obtain the sum of  N2,000,000 (Two Million Naira), which said sum was paid into your Fidelity Bank account No. 5330259983, by a means of transfer from God’s Grace Haulage Limited on the pretext that you were to facilitate the award of road construction contract from Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), a pretext you know to be false and thereby committed an offence, contrary to Section 1(i)(a) of Advance Fee Fraud and Other Related Offences Act, 2006 and punishable under Section 1(3) of the same Act.” He was sentenced to 7 years in prison by Justice A.T Mohammed of the Federal High Court, Port Harcourt, on Friday, January 17, 2020