A Nigerian public official involved in the theft of some $203million
police pension fund has been remanded in prison custody by another judge
some 48 hours after a public outrage greeted his light sentence on
Monday.
Justice Adamu Bello remanded John Yakubu Yesufu to jail this morning
after he was freshly charged to court for failure to disclose his
assets.
Mr. Yesufu had earlier been sentenced to two years maximum prison
term with an option of $1,500 last Monday after he pleaded guilty to
stealing $203 million while administering the Nigerian police pension
fund.
The new judge denied Mr. Yesufu bail and ordered him sent to jail until March for the next trial date.
EFCC STATEMENT: Police Pension: EFCC Arraigns Yusufu over N250 million Fraud
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission EFCC on Wednesday
January 30, 2013 arraigned John Yakubu Yusufu, a former Director of
Police Pension Office before Justice Adamu Bello of the Federal High
Court, Abuja on a four count charge bordering on failure to make full
disclosure of assets and liability in his Assets Declaration form and
declare his interest in a company known as SY-A Global Services Limited.
Yusufu is alleged to have used the company to lodged N250 million with a new generation bank.
One of the charges reads; “that you John Yakubu Yusufu on or about
14th February, 2012 at Abuja in the Abuja Judicial Division knowingly
failed to make full disclosure of your assets and liability in the
Declaration of Assets Form filled by you, by not declaring your interest
in the N250,000,000 (Two hundred and Fifty Million Naira) you lodged in
a fixed deposit account with the Zenith Bank in the name of SY-A Global
Services Limited, a company in which you are the sole signatory to its
account and you thereby committed an offence punishable under section
27(3) of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (Establishment,
etc) ACT CAP E1 2004”.
The accused pleaded not guilty to the charge. EFCC counsel, Rotimi
Jacobs asked the court to remand the accused in prison custody and fix a
date for trial.
Counsel to the defendant, Gabriel Tsenyen prayed the court to grant
him a short adjournment to enable him file an application for bail. He
also prayed the court to remand his client in EFCC custody. However,
Justice Adamu Bello ordered that the accused be remanded in prison
custody and adjourned the case to March 1, 2013.
It will be recalled that Yusufu was among six top officials of the
Police Pension Office arraigned by the EFCC on March 29, 2012, on
16-count criminal charges bordering on conspiracy and criminal breach of
trust. The other accused persons are Esai Dangabar, Atiku Abubakar
Kigo, Ahmed Inuwa Wada, Mrs. Veronica Ulonma Onyegbula and Sani Habila
Zira. Kigo was the director of the Police Pension Office before he was
made permanent. They allegedly stole over N32.8billion from the police
pension office.
On Monday, January 28, 2013, Justice Mohammed Talba convicted and
sentenced Yusufu to 6 years imprisonment with the option of a fine,
having pleaded guilty to three counts of an amended 20-count charge.
Wilson Uwujaren
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