Dariye
The Abuja Division of the Court of Appeal, on 16th November 2018 reviewed downwards the jail sentences of two erstwhile governors, Senator Joshua Dariye of Plateau State and his Taraba counterpart, Reverend Jolly Nyame.
The two former governors were earlier
handed down 14 years imprisonment each after an Abuja High Court found
them guilty of criminal breach of trust and misappropriation of public
funds.
The trial judge, Justice Adebukola
Banjoko, had in her judgment handed down the maximum 14 years
imprisonment to the duo after finding them guilty of criminal breach of
trust. The court in addition handed them the maximum sentence of two
years each for criminal misappropriation of funds.
However, the appellate court while
delivering judgments on Friday on the two separate appeals filed by
Dariye and Nyame against the order of the High Court, reduced the
sentence of Dariye to 10 years while that of Nyame was brought to 12
years. The Court in addition awarded a fine of N495m on Reverend Nyame.
The three- man panel of the Court of
Appeal in the judgment, which upheld the decision of the trial court
however, held that the trial court erred in applying the maximum
punishment on the governors on the grounds that they were first
offenders.
The appellate court in Dariye’s appeal,
held that the initial 14 years jail term was “excessive and therefore
cannot be sustained” because the defendant was found to be a first
offender.
According to Justice Stephen Adah, who
delivered the lead judgment, while the issue of sentencing is
discretionary, such discretion must be governed by law and must not be
fanciful, arbitrary or excessive.
Also Justice Adah held that the trial
judge ran contrary to section 416 of Administration of Criminal Justice
Act, 2015, when it sentenced Dariye to two years imprisonment under
count 12, without conviction. He consequently quashed the sentence and
set it aside.
The court further noted that there was
no basis for the conviction of Dariye in count 23, because the
prosecution failed to prove beyond reasonable doubt that the defendant
diverted over N1billion ecological fund meant for Plateau State into
buying a house in London.
Therefore, the court held that conviction of Dariye based on count 23 was “wrong and therefore liable to be quashed.
However, Justice Adah agreed with
Justice Banjoko on counts 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10, 11, 17, 21 and 22.
He consequently reduced the jail terms from 14 to 10 years.
Delivering judgment in Reverend Nyame’s
appeal also yesterday, Justice Emmanuel Agim, who read the judgment of
the appellate court, said Nyame’s appeal against the verdict of Justice
Banjoko failed in its entirety.
Similarly, while the court reduced the
jail term from 14 to 12 being that Nyame was a first offender, the Court
of Appeal held that taking into consideration section 315 of the
Criminal Code Act, the trial court failed to impose a fine as stipulated
by law in view of the gravity of the offence leveled against Nyame to
serve as deterrence.
Justice Agim berated Nyame for abusing
his office as governor by converting public funds into private usage,
adding that the former Taraba governor exhibited a “callous criminal
mind and the impact of his criminal act was devastating to the entire
people of Taraba state”.
Agim noted that “public office
corruption” is in the class of crime against humanity, terrorism etc and
that the offender must face the full wrath of the law.
He insisted that the trial court was
right to have convicted the former governor, adding that “security vote
is a public fund and its usage must be properly accounted for.”
Consequently, having reduced the
custodian sentence from 14 to the 12 years, the appellate court ordered
Nyame to pay the total fine of N495 million. The breakdown is: counts 1,
2 and 6, N100 million each; in counts 8, N50 million; counts 10, 12,
and 14, N20 million each and counts 16, 18, 20, 29, 30, 31 and 32, N10
million each, while count 36 is N5 million.
