Court arraigns undergraduate over alleged ATM cards theft

Emmanuel Akosile

A Makurdi Magistrate’s Court has arraigned Justine Akura, a 22-year-old student of the Department of Guidance and Counseling/Social Studies, Benue State University (BSU), over alleged theft of 16 Automatic Teller Machine (ATM) cards.

Akura, sources disclosed, was charged with criminal conspiracy and being in possession of the ATM cards suspected to be stolen, contrary to Sections 97 and 318 of the Penal Code Laws of Benue, 2004.

Mr. Omaye Ojata, the prosecutor, informed the court that on October 31, 2019, a letter to hand over a suspect was received at the office of the Benue Commissioner of Police, from the Security Unit of BSU.

Ojata quoted the letter as saying that Akura, a 300-level student of BSU, was arrested with 16 ATM cards of different banks with different names on him in an examination hall.

The letter further said that when the accused person was questioned, he could not give a satisfactory account of how he got the ATM cards.

The Prosecutor said that the accused person confessed, during Police investigation, that he had been sending the ATM cards to certain Ayo James (now at large) who lives in Kaduna, and uses them in committing series of crimes.

When the case came up for mention, the accused person could not take a plea for lack of jurisdiction of the court.

The Prosecutor informed the court that investigation into the matter was ongoing and asked for an adjournment.

Mr. Isaac Fulani, Counsel to the accused person, applied for his bail pursuant to Section 86(5) of the 1999 Constitution, arguing that the accused person is a student and currently writing his examinations.

Mr. Peter Chaha, the Magistrate, who granted bail to the accused person in the sum of N200,000 and a surety in the same amount, adjourned the case to January 8, 2020, for further mention.