Two siblings, Michael Yusuf Michael and Martha Daniel Yusuf, have landed in the palaver of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission trouble after allegedly diverting over N55m collected on behalf of patients of cancer and other diseases.
The Kaduna Zonal Command of the EFCC arraigned the duo before Justice Hannnatu A.L Balogun on an eight count charge bordering on obtaining by false pretence.
According to the commission, they floated an unregistered medical and empowerment Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) through which they solicited for donations from members of the public on social media, ostensibly to assist persons suffering from cancer but diverted the proceeds to their personal use.
They had, on 22nd March, 2021 allegedly posted online a video of a woman suffering from breast cancer and sought donations for her medical treatment from kind-hearted persons through one of their bank accounts with the account name, MYM123care
One of the charges reads, “that you Michael Yusuf Michael, Martha Daniel Yusuf, Ali Felix (at large), Samuel Kabir Daniel ( at large), KITE ICT HUB LIMITED and Femi Obasaju ( at large) sometime between the months of March and July, 2021 in Kaduna within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court, with intent to defraud conspired amongst yourselves to obtain a total sum of N 55,879,379.76 ( Fifty -Five Million, Eight Hundred and Seventy Nine Thousand, Three Hundred and Seventy Naira, Seventy- Six Kobo Only) from the general public under the pretense that it was only to be used for the treatment of ailing persons and cancer patients, which pretense you knew to be false and thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 8 (a) of the Advance Fee Fraud and Other Fraud Related Offences Act 2006 and punishable under Section 1 (3) of the same Act”.
Although they pleaded not guilty, both would have been in a correctional centre where Justice Balogun ordered that they be kept, had it been that Martha was not pregnant.
Justice Balogun refused Michael bail on the grounds that he had not placed sufficient materials before the court to guarantee that he will not jump bail or tamper with the evidence and witnesses in the case, as several of his accomplices are still at large.
