Joseph Friday Idachaba, Deputy Controller of Prisons has been convicted by a Kogi State High Court sitting inOkeneand sentenced to 7 years imprisonment for defrauding the Nigerian government to the tune of N1, 403,114.09.
Apart from the sentence, the convict has been asked to refund the said amount to the Nigeria Prison Service, NPS as a form of restitution.
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, arraigned Idachaba alongside Onoja Ruth, NPS staff before the court presided by Justice J.J Majebi in 2012 on a three-count chargeofobtaining money by false pretence.
The charge for which Idachabawas convicted reads thus: “That you Joseph Friday Idachaba (m) being a deputy comptroller of Nigeria Prisons Service, and Onoja D. Ruth (IP) also a staff of Nigeria Prison Service, sometime between July, 2012 to February 2013at Lokoja, Kogi State did with intent to defraud obtained N1,403,114.09 only from the Federal Government of Nigeria via the Nigeria Prison Service with pretence that same amount was the payment of monthly salaries from Nigeria Prison Service, which amount was credited into the UBA Plc account No 2054047736 belonging to one Opia Mohammed Ugbade (now at large), through NIGSS electronic fund transfer (NEFT) between July 2012-to February 2013, that the said Opia Mohammed Ugbade’s name found in the Nigeria Prison Service electronic payroll is not a staff of the Service which pretence you knew to be false and hereby committed an offence contrary to section 1(1) paragraphs A&B and punishable under section 1(3) of the Advance Free Fraud and Other Related Offences Act,” the statement read.
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