MAHMOUD ALIYU V. FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF NIGERIA

OBANDE FESTUS OGBUINYA, J.S.C. (Delivering the Lead Judgment): This appeal probes into the rightness of the decision of the Court of Appeal, Abuja Division (hereinafter labelled as "the lower Court"), coram judice: Peter C. Obiorah, Eberechi S. Nyesom-Wike and Oyejoju O. Oyewumi, JJCA, in Appeal No. CA/ABJ/CR/1097/2020, delivered on the 14th February, 2025. In its judgment, the lower Court affirmed the decision of the Federal High Court, Abuja Division (the trial Court), in Charge No. FHC/ABJ/CS/41/2019, delivered on the 8th October, 2020, wherein Ijeoma L. Ojukwu, J. convicted and sentenced the appellant to 12 months imprisonment or a fine of N1M for the offence preferred against him. 

The synopsis of the material facts of the case, which transformed into this appeal, are disobedient to verbosity and complexity. Sometime in 2002, the appellant was a staff of the Federal Housing Authority (FHA). Whilst in the employ of the FHA, acting as an agent of one Major Sanusi N. Muazu, who he cl…