A High Court sitting in Makurdi has sentenced a former Chairman of Benue State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB), Anum Iho, to seven years imprisonment for criminal conspiracy and embezzlement of N95.5 million meant for training teachers in the state on Information Communication Technology (ICT).
The ex-SUBEB boss was convicted of the crime without an option of fine alongside a staff of the board, Donald Anageende.
In his ruling, the state Chief Judge, Adams Onum, held that the evidence before him was overwhelming and that the prosecution which called four witnesses proved its case beyond reasonable doubt against the two convicts.
The judge also handed Iho another five years in prison without an option of fine for receiving a bribe of N14.9 million from a contractor known as Brown Sugar Global Resources Limited, an offence said to be contrary to section 19 of the Independent Corrupt Practices Commission (ICPC) Act, 2000.
Daily Trust reports that the ICPC had earlier dragged the convicts to court on a four count charge and subsequently provided witnesses against them.
Onum while convicting and sentencing the duo, noted that the accused persons lied before the court as he averred that the only defence of Iho that he does not answer the name under which he was charged by the ICPC’s prosecution could not scale the weight of justice.
The judge further held that the attempt by the former SUBEB chairman to deny his name at that stage was an after-thought because he had taken pleas in the same name and did not deny it when he was served to appear in court.
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