The 10-year jail term handed to the former governor of Plateau State, Joshua Dariye, after being convicted for criminal misappropriation and criminal breach of trust, was on Friday affirmed by the Supreme Court.
Dariye, who was convicted for reportedly looting N2billion public funds during his tenure as the Governor of Plateau State between 1999 and 2007, and elected as the senator representing Plateau Central in the Nigerian Senate in 2015, was however sentenced in June 2018 but still completed his tenure as a senator from jail in June 2019.
He led a partly successful appeal at the Supreme Court with a five-man panel of the court headed by Mary Odili, quashing his conviction in respect of criminal misappropriation in a unanimous decision handed down Friday.
The offences he was discharged of attracted only two years’ imprisonment and, so had no impact on his overall number of years of imprisonment.
The apex upheld the ex-governor’s conviction in respect of criminal breach of trust, which attracted the 10-year jail term.
Adebukola Banjoko of the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja had 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.
But following his appeal against the judgment, the 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 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 had further appealed to the Supreme Court.
A member of the apex court’s panel, Ejembi Emo noted that Dariye’s appeal “succeeded in part” after quashing the ex-governor come conviction in respect of charges of criminal misappropriation.
A justice of the apex court, Helen Ogunwumiju, read the conclusion of the judgment on behalf of Ejembi, without giving details on Friday.
The five-man panel of the Supreme court headed by Mary Odili on Friday, however, upheld the ex-governor conviction in respect of the criminal breach of trust which attracted the 10-year jail term.
His conviction for criminal misappropriation was quashed, but it had no impact on his overall number of years of imprisonment as it attracted two years imprisonment.
