Crime
Ex-director of Finance at the Niger Delta Ministry bags one year jail term for N60m fraud
A Federal Capital Territory (FCT) High Court, has sentenced a former Director Finance of the Niger Delta Ministry, Mr. Ayinla Abibu, 60, to one-year imprisonment as well as the forfeiture of two plots of land in Kubwa and Bwari of Abuja.
Abibu was charged by the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) for embezzling the sum of N60 Million from the Federal Government through the use of a front company, Zeocat Nigeria Limited, in March, 2014.
Abibu was charged by the Commission before Hon Justice Olukayode Adeniyi for defrauding the Federal Government in collusion with a former Principal Accountant in the Ministry, Kabiru Poloma, by fraudulently withdrawing money from the Constituency Project account of the Ministry domiciled in the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
The 60-year-old convict was said to have used the proceeds of the fraud to acquire a house in Ogbomosho, Oyo state, and plots of land in Kubwa and Bwari of the Federal Capital Territory Abuja.
Before his sentencing, the defence lawyer, Abiola Akinwale, pleaded with the Court to be lenient with the convict by granting him a lighter sentence as the convict falls amongst the age vulnerable to COVID-19.
The defence lawyer further told the Court that a longer sentence would quicken the death of the convict’s aged parents who were 99 and 92 years old respectively.
The ICPC Counsel, Mr George Lawal, while conceding the powers of sentence to the Court, stated that the grievous nature of the crime committed by the convict demanded that he should be punished accordingly.
Lawal argued that a lesser sentence might fail to serve as a deterrent to would-be offenders.
He said:
“In the circumstances, it is only fair that restitution be made in equal value of what was taken. This will send a clear message that crime does not pay.”
This development comes as the National Assembly just concluded an investigation that exposed the financial recklessness in the Niger Delta Development Commission NDDC, a commission under the Niger Delta Affairs Ministry.
-
News15 hours ago
Unknown gunmen kidnap four in Abuja community
-
News14 hours ago
Adeleke boasts of loan-free tenure 16 months into Osun administration
-
Politics12 hours ago
May Day: Edo LP guber candidate Akpata vows to prioritize welfare
-
Metro13 hours ago
FG offers free train rides on Port Harcourt-Aba railway
-
News13 hours ago
May Day: Akpabio assures workers of improved welfare
-
Metro12 hours ago
16 die as overspeeding bus crashes into fence
-
News11 hours ago
19 dead as highway collapse in Guandong, China
-
Economy11 hours ago
Naira gains against dollar at official market, trades at N1,390/$