By Ola Kay
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, has secured the conviction of a truck driver, Kasimu Bawa, for unlawful possession of lithium minerals worth N2.4m.
Justice Abimbola Awogboro of the Federal High Court sitting in Ilorin the Kwara State capital sentenced 50-year-old Bawa to two years’ imprisonment for being him guilty of the offence.
Bawa was arrested by operatives of the Ilorin Zonal Directorate of the EFCC on September 9, 2022, at Share, along Tsaragi Road in Edu Local Government Area of Kwara State.
The defendant is a native of Wukari Local Government Area of Taraba State,
He was intercepted while transporting 25 tons of suspected illegally mined minerals valued at N2.4m in a DAF truck with registration number KEY 777ZF.
According to the anti-graft body, the illegally sourced minerals were purchased without a licence by a Chinese national, Gang Deng, who had earlier been convicted and sentenced to five years’ imprisonment by the same court on October 19, 2022.
Bawa was subsequently arraigned on November 1, 2022, on a one-count charge bordering on unlawful possession of minerals without due authorization.
“That you, Kasimu Bawa, sometime in the month of September 2022, at Share, along Tsaragi Road, in Edu Local Government Area of Kwara State, within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court, without lawful authority, came into possession of minerals, to wit: 25 tons of minerals worth N2,498,000 conveyed in a DAF truck with registration number KEY 777ZF…thereby committed an offence contrary to and punishable under Section 1(8)(b)(i) of the Miscellaneous Offences Act, 1984,” the charge sheet reads.
In the course of the procerding, the defendant pleaded not guilty, warranting a full trial.
This led the prosecution to invite two witnesses, a Chief Remote Sensing Officer of the Nigerian Geological Survey Agency, Ifarinde Odeyemi, and the investigating officer.The defence also called two witnesses, including the defendant.
Odeyemi told the trial judge that laboratory analysis conducted on the seized minerals confirmed they were lepidolite, a lithium-bearing mineral.
Finally, the prosecuting counsel, Innocent Mbachie, urged the court to convict the defendant and order the forfeiture of both the truck and minerals to the Federal Government.
Delivering judgment, Justice Awogboro sentenced Bawa to two years’ imprisonment with an option of N5m fine, while the court also ordered the forfeiture of the truck and the lithium to the Federal Government.
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