BREAKING: Popular Nigerian Former Governor Imprisoned

Popular Nigerian former governor has been imprisoned, the Supreme Court confirmed.

OnyxNews Nigeria reports that a former governor of Plateau State, Joshua Dariye, has been sentenced to 10 years imprisonment for criminal misappropriation and criminal breach of trust.

Joshua Dariye.

Dariye was reported to have looted N2billion public funds during his time as Plateau State governor, between 1999 and 2007.

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.

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 only attracted two years’ imprisonment and, so had no impact on his overall number of years of imprisonment.

READ 13 Naval Personnel Face Court-Martial In Lagos

The apex upheld the ex-govermor’s conviction in respect of criminal breach of trust, which attracted the 10-year jail term.

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.