• Council chairman still at large
From Timothy Olanrewaju, Maiduguri
A local government supervisory councillor and another politician in Borno State have been sentenced to two years imprisonment by the Maiduguri High Court for diversion of 300 bags of rice provided for internally displaced persons (IDPs) by an international humanitarian agency.
Umar Ibrahim, a supervisory councillor for agriculture in Mafa Local Government Area, and Bulama Ali Zangebe, a local politician, were yesterday jailed under Section 96 and 97 of the Penal Code Law, Cap 345, Laws of the Northern States of Nigeria, by Borno State High Court 13 for criminal conspiracy and criminal misappropriation of bags of rice meant for IDPs in Mafa Local Government Council. They were arraigned by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
In his ruling, Justice Fadau Umar stated that: “I have considered the plea of the accused persons and the provision of the law. You are, therefore, sentenced to two years imprisonment.”
The court also held that the two convicts should pay N1 million each to the Borno State government, while it ordered the forfeiture of N50,000 recovered from them by the EFCC.
The court said the first issue as to whether or not the council official and the politician conspired to sell bags of rice given to IDPs in Mafa by the Norwegian Refugee Agency is determined in favour of EFCC. On the second issue of EFCC’s right to sue the accused in Maiduguri, the court ruled in favour of the commission, citing relevant legal precedent and laws.
According to the EFCC’s brief, the two accused persons, acting on the instructions of the chairman, Mafa Local Government Area, who is still at large, conspired and sold the bags of rice sometime in December 2016, despite the inscription “Not For Sale” on them.
They confessed to have sold each bag at the cost of N8,500 and remitted N8,000 to the LG chairman, while they kept N500 as their share of the business. A total of N1.4 million was realised by the accused from the sale of the bags of rice.
They also said they received the instruction of the chairman to sell the bags of rice over claims of IDPs comdemanding for a change of food. They said the council intended to use the money to buy corn in exchange for the rice, for IDPs’ use, a claim which the court dismissed as untrue.
Counsel to the EFCC, Khalid Sanusi, described the judgment as a boost to the anti-corruption crusade championed by the commission: “The judgment has been given and we are happy about it. It is a boost to the anti-corruption campaign of EFCC to rid our country of graft and other financial crimes. We are not persecuting but prosecuting offenders,” he told Daily Sun at the court.