Court sentences director to 5 years imprisonment in Abuja

Justice O. J. Enobie of the FCT High Court in Jabi, Abuja, has sentenced Daniel Silas, the director of Asher Trust Investment Limited and Fifteen Network Limited, to five years in prison for fraud.

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) prosecuted Silas and his companies on two counts of criminal breach of trust and dishonest conversion of property, amounting to N128 million (One Hundred and Twenty-eight Million Naira).

According to a statement from the EFCC on Friday, the first count against Silas stated: “That you, Daniel Ungbo Silas, being the Director of Fifteen Network Limited, sometime between the fifth day of October, 2016, in Abuja, within the jurisdiction of the Federal Capital Territory, while being entrusted with certain property to wit: the sum of N88,000,000 (Eighty-eight Million Naira) paid into Fifteen Network Limited’s Bank Account by Mohammed Awwal Musa for the purchase of United States Dollars, committed criminal breach of trust in respect of the said property when you dishonestly converted the said sum to your own use, thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 311 of the Penal Code Act Cap 532 Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, (Abuja) 2024 and punishable under Section 312 of the same Act.”

In addition to his prison sentence, Silas is ordered to refund N128 million (One Hundred and Twenty-eight Million Naira), the proceeds of his crime, within 30 days.

The EFCC’s statement added, “Silas received his sentence for dishonestly converting N128 million, which was meant to be exchanged for United States Dollars, for his own use. He neither returned the money nor provided the dollar equivalent to his victim.”