A Niger State Magistrates’ Court sitting in Minna has convicted a mining company and two persons and sentenced them to six years and nine months’ imprisonment for cheating, impersonation, criminal conspiracy, criminal misappropriation and mischief.

The company, Zumunta Marketing and Construction Company Limited, was represented by its managing director/chief executive officer, Alhaji Tijani Abdullahi.

The other convicts are Musa Umar and Adamu Magaji, both from Zumba village in the Shiroro Local Government Area of the state.

They were earlier arraigned on four counts of criminal conspiracy, cheating by impersonation, criminal misappropriation and mischief, contrary to sections 97, 324, 309 and 327 of the Penal Code.

The prosecutor had told the court that a complaint was received from Moses Makeri, Sokoto Muhammadu and Ibrahim Makeri, who claimed that the land on which the convicts mined wolframite was located at Patuko village near Zumba in the Shiroro Local Government Area of the state and that the convicts had no right to operate in the said area.

The court found the claims to be true.

In his ruling, Magistrate Murtala Ibrahim sentenced the men to two years’ imprisonment each, with an option of N60,000 fine each.

They were also ordered to pay the sum of N50,000 as compensation to the nominal complainants and in default of payment, they would serve three months in jail without an option of fine.

For the offence of criminal conspiracy, each of the convicts was ordered to pay N10,000 and in default, they would serve six months in prison; while for the offence of cheating by impersonation, they were each ordered to pay N20,000 or spend two years in jail.

They were each sentenced to one year imprisonment or pay a fine of N10,000 for criminal misappropriation and N20,000 or one year imprisonment for the offence of mischief.