Supreme Court has on Friday upheld the 10-year imprisonment imposed on former Plateau Governor, Joshua Dariye upon his conviction on the offence of criminal breach of trust.
A five-man panel of the court, led by Justice Mary Odili, in a unanimous judgment on Friday, upheld Dariye’s appeal in part by quashing a one-year sentence imposed on him by the Court of Appeal in relation to the offence of criminal misappropriation.
Justice Ejembi Eko prepared the lead judgment, which was read on Friday by Justice Helen Ogunwumiju. Other members of the panel include Lawal Garba, Samuel Oseji and Tijani Abubakar.
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Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) in 2007 charged Dariye to court in, accusing him of diverting N1.126 billion from Plateau government’s ecological fund during his time as governor, between 1999 and 2007.
Then, Adebukola Banjoko of High Court of the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja on June 12, 2018 convicted Dariye and originally sentenced him to 14 years’ imprisonment on charges of criminal breach of trust and two years’ jail term for criminal misappropriation.
However, following his appeal against the judgment, Court of Appeal in Abuja on November 16, 2018, commuted the 14 years’ jail term to 10.
While the Court of Appeal affirmed his conviction, it held that section section 416 (2) of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act 2015, prohibited the imposition of maximum sentence on a first offender, such as the convict.
The former governor, elected as the senator representing Plateau Central in the Nigerian Senate in 2015, was sentenced in June 2018 but still completed his tenure as a senator from jail in June 2019.
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Following his sentence at the Court of Appeal, the former governor further appealed at the Supreme Court.
Although his 10-year jail term was upheld, Ejembi Emo, a member of the apex court’s panel noted that Dariye’s appeal “succeeded in part” after quashing the ex-governor’s come conviction in respect of charges of criminal misappropriation.
