Ex-governor Nyame gets 14-year jail term

Former governor of Taraba State, Jolly Nyame, has been sentenced to a total of 14 years in prison for corruption related charges.

He was charged with 41-count by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, for criminal misappropriation, diversion of public funds, and breach of public trust.

Nyame was found guilty on 27 of the charges and sentenced to prison without option of a fine by Justice Adebukola Banjoko of the Federal High Court, Abuja. His trial began on July 13, 2007  

Nyame was found guilty on 16-count for criminal breach of trust and sentenced to 14 years imprisonment on each of the count, the maximum allowed. 

He was found guilty on another nine-count of criminal misappropriation and sentenced to two years imprisonment on each count.

He was also sentenced to seven years for each of the two counts for receiving gratification.

Justice Banjoko ruled that the sentences should run concurrently meaning Nyame would spend a maximum of 14 years in prison.

The judge held that the mere fact that Nyame was still committing the offence a month before he left office despite the searchlight of the EFCC on him since 2006 showed that he was “either an unrepentant sinner or the most audacious executive Nigeria ever had.”

“I am morally outraged by the facts of this case. The citizens of Taraba state had elected him (Nyame), as a clergyman, to govern them on three separate occasions (1991, 1999 and 2003). The expectation must have been so high because as a Reverend, he must have been seen as an epitome of piety. How can he justify causing such a colossal loss to the state,” the judge said.

She held that Nyame’s boldness in the “reckless mismanagement” of the state funds showed that he and his officials were “behaving like common thieves with unbridled and insatiable thirst.” 

She added that it was amazing that none of the officials with culpability in “causing a colossal loss” to Taraba state were charged to court despite admitting their culpability by returning their shares of the misappropriated funds to the EFCC. 

The court ordered that all funds returned by these officials to the EFCC during investigation be returned to the coffers of Taraba state government.

Earlier in the judgment that took over four hours, the court found Nyame guilty of misappropriating N250 million meant for the purchase of office equipments and stationery. 

He was also found guilty of misappropriating additional N165million he approved for extra purchase of stationery five weeks after approving the N250million with nothing delivered by the contractor.

The judge said the preponderance of evidence before the court showed that on December 30, 2004, Nyame approved the N250million memo raised by his then Commissioner of Finance, Alhaji Abubakar Tutare for the purchase of stationery through direct labour a few days before the end of the year.

Tutare in his evidence told the court that of the N250million, he was given verbal directives by Nyame to credit the account of a contractor, Salman Global Ventures with N180million and that N10million was shared to some politicians, N10million each given to him (Tutare) and the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Finance and that N40million should be used for the purchase of the stationery.

The court held that evidence showed that the purchase should have been through direct labour and as such Salman Global Ventures, which did not apply for any contract, had no right to have been awarded the contract. 

The same Salman Global was also paid an additional N165million five weeks after the initial N180million for the purchase of extra stationery.

The court noted that there was an eventual supply of stationery worth N20million but the supply did not emanate from Salman Global after a total of N415million was approved for it.

Justice Banjoko said Nyame’s denial that he did not give any verbal instruction for the sharing of the approved funds could not be substantiated as he neither queried Tutare nor instituted a probe into the fraud throughout his term as governor.

She turned down a plea for mitigation by Nyame’s counsel saying: “There’s no moral justification for the level of outright theft, and the court must therefore, impose a statement, hopefully as a deterrent to other public officers, who may be similarly inclined”