Ex legislative aide jailed for eight years over N120.5m job scam in Abuja

Ex legislative aide jailed for eight years over N120.5m job scam in Abuja

Abdullateef Fowewe

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) announced on Tuesday that Goni Yilkan, a former legislative aide and banker, was convicted and sentenced to eight years imprisonment without the option of a fine by Justice F. E Messiri of the Federal Capital Territory High Court in Abuja.

Yilkan was found guilty of obtaining N120.5 million by false pretence.

The EFCC statement said, “The Ilorin Zonal Directorate of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, on Monday, September 22, 2025, secured the conviction and sentence of a former legislative aide and banker, Mr. Goni Yilkan, for offences bordering on obtaining by false pretence to the tune of N120.5 million.”

Yilkan, alongside another accused, Mohammed Adamu, was arraigned in October 2023 following a petition alleging that Yilkan deceived job seekers between 2020 and 2021 by promising employment in government agencies such as the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), and Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC).

The EFCC detailed the charges stating, “That you, Mohammed Goni Yilkan, Mohammed Adamu and others at large between 3rd January 2020 and December 2021 in Abuja with intent to defraud obtained the sum of N120,580,550 from Mrs. Hindatu Bello under the false pretence that you had the capacity to secure jobs… which pretence you knew to be false…”
During prosecution led by Cosmas Ugwu, six witnesses and documentation were presented, while Yilkan’s defence included two witnesses and his own testimony. Justice Messiri ruled that the prosecution had proven its case beyond reasonable doubt, convicting Yilkan and acquitting Adamu.

The statement concluded, “Yilkan’s journey to the Correctional Centre began when he collected the sum of N120.5 million from desperate job seekers in the guise of offering them slots of employment. He neither offered them the jobs nor returned their money to them.”