An 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.
Ayinla 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 Abibu 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 the verdict, the defense 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 defense 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 the 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 is made in the 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.