A Kaduna Chief Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday, sentenced a 45-year-old farmer, Abdullahi Khalid, to 10 months imprisonment over N1.5 million land fraud.
Khalid, who lives at Isah Kaita Road, Kaduna, is facing a two-count charge of fraud and cheating.
The Magistrate, Ibrahim Emmanuel, passed the sentence after Khalid had pleaded guilty to the charges.
Emmanuel, however, gave the convict an option of N50,000 fine, with a warning to desist from criminal activities.
The court also ordered the convict to pay N1.5 million restitution to the complainant, Shuaibu Saleh, warning that a default in the payment will attract another one-year jail term.
Earlier, the prosecutor, Insp. Chidi Leo, had told the court that the defendant committed the offences sometimes on Feb. 24, in Kaduna.
According to Leo, the defendant sold a plot of land, situated at Rigasa in Kaduna, to the complainant at the sum of N1.5 million.
“The defendant collected the money and gave the complainant a fake document,” he said.
The prosecutor stated that when the complainant went to start building on the said land, he was stopped by the real owner.
Leo added that all efforts made by the complainant to get his money back proved abortive.
The prosecutor said that the offences contravened Sections 297 and 307 of the Kaduna State Penal Code Law.