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A five-man panel of the Supreme Court has affirmed the ten-year jail term sentence slammed on a former governor of Plateau state, Senator Joshua Dariye, who is serving the jail term for criminal breach of trust.
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) had charged Dariye to court in 2007, accusing him of diverting N1.126 billion from Plateau government’s ecological fund.
In June 2018, Adebukola Banjoko, a judge of a Federal Capital Territory (FCT) High Court in Gudu, sentenced Dariye to 14 years imprisonment having found him guilty on 15 out the 23 counts preferred against him.
However, the Court of Appeal in Abuja in November 2018 commuted the sentence from 14 years to 10 years.
The court held that since Dariye is a first-time offender, the 14-year jail term was excessive.
In a lead judgment read by Justice Helen Ogunwumiju on behalf of the Justice Mary Odili panel on Friday, the Supreme Court held that the Appeal Court was right to have affirmed the judgment of an Abuja High Court which originally sentenced the ex-governor.
Dariye was governor between 1999 and 2007.
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