Convicted fraudster unlawfully released by prison officials sent back to jail

Justice Mojisola Dada of the Lagos State Special Offences Court in Ikeja has sent back a convicted fraudster, Anthony Okpala, who was allegedly released from pris￾on custody without a valid court or￾der, back to the Kirikiri Centre of
the Nigerian Correctional Servic￾es (NCoS).

Justice Dada had on December
21, 2023, convicted and sentenced
Okpala and his company, Mashu￾chun International Limited, to a
seven-year jail term for convert￾ing to their use the sum of $177 000
and the N6, 504, 000 The judge, who gave the verdict when he delivered judgment on a charge numbered ID/8863C/2019, filed by the Economic and Finan￾cial Crimes Commission (EFCC)
also ordered the businessman to
pay N1 million in addition to the
jail term. But after the sentence was
passed on the convict, he was al￾legedly released by some NCoS of￾ficials without any court order.

Following his unlawful release,
the nominal complainant, Ibrahim
Zango, through his lawyer, Benig￾nus Mbam, petitioned the minister
of interior and the comptroller- gen￾eral of the Nigerian Correction￾al Services (NCoS) on the alleged
illegal acts of the NCoS officials