Trader bags 3 years for forging customs documents

A Federal High Court sitting in Kano State has convicted a 41-year-old trader, Abdulrahman Sani Adam, for falsifying customs documents used in processing goods at the Kano Free Trade Zone. Adam, who operates under the business name, Century Care Enterprise, was arraigned before Justice Musa Saleh Shuaibu on a one-count charge bordering on falsification of […]

A Federal High Court sitting in Kano State has convicted a 41-year-old trader, Abdulrahman Sani Adam, for falsifying customs documents used in processing goods at the Kano Free Trade Zone.
Adam, who operates under the business name, Century Care Enterprise, was arraigned before Justice Musa Saleh Shuaibu on a one-count charge bordering on falsification of a document with the intent to defraud the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS).
During Wednesday’s proceedings, prosecution counsel and Director of Legal Services, Nigeria Customs Service, Smart Akonde, informed the court that the defendant had already entered into a plea bargain agreement with the federal government.
The charge, read by the court registrar, stated that the defendant “knowingly and willfully falsified a material fact and document to wit: a Transire document, by making a materially false and fictitious representation” regarding goods in container numbers MSKU 9874173, TCNU 2769854 and MRSU 55176001.
The offence was said to violate Section 228(1) of the Nigeria Customs Service Act, 2023, which prescribes penalties for falsification of customs documents.
Upon the reading of the charge, Abdulrahman Sani Adam pleaded guilty.
Akonde thereafter moved an application urging the court to adopt the plea bargain agreement dated December 8, 2025, and filed on December 9, 2025, noting that both parties freely consented to its terms, which included a fine component of N3m.
The defence counsel, Aminu Abdullahi, confirmed his client’s acceptance of the plea bargain and did not oppose the prosecution’s application.
In his judgment, Justice Shuaibu convicted the defendant as charged and sentenced him to three years imprisonment with an option of a N3m fine in line with the plea bargain agreement.