20th December, 2016
A 42-year-old man, Emmanuel Jagede, who allegedly defrauded an accommodation seeker of N550, 000, was on Tuesday released on a N200, 000 bail on the orders of a Wuse Zone 2 Chief Magistrates’ Court, Abuja.
The defendant, an estate agent, who lives in Kurudu, Abuja, is facing a two-count charge of criminal breach of trust and cheating.
Prosecutor Gideon Ayana told the court that a man, Friday Sunday, reported the incident at Central Police Station on Dec. 11.
According to him, sometime in July the defendant presented himself as an agent and collected the sum of N550,000 from the complainant to rent a house for his friend.
“The defendant promised to get the complainant’s friend a three-bedroom flat at Kurudu.
“He also agreed to renovate the house before handing it over to the complainant.
“Instead, the defendant converted the money to personal use and has since been avoiding the complainant.”
The prosecutor said when the complainant pressured the defendant to pay him back the money he gave the complainant a cheque of N600,000 that was signed by another person.
He added when the cheque was presented at the bank it was dishonoured.
The offences contravened Sections 312 and 322 of the Penal Code.
The defendant, however, pleaded not guilty to the charges.
The Senior Magistrate, Musa Jobbo, who gave the ruling, also granted the defendant two sureties in like sum.
Jobbo said the sureties must be within the court’s jurisdiction and adjourned the case to Jan. 26, 2017 for hearing.